SU Ag Center Leadership Institute Graduate Receives Fellowship

Contact: Bridget Udoh

(225) 771-5714

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ag Institute Graduate Named Fellow

BATON ROUGE, LA, 4/25/11 – Jenga Mwendo was among the 14 new Fellows recently selected by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) Food and Community to receive an award. The 2011-2013 class of Fellows is a mix of grassroots advocates, thought leaders, writers and entrepreneurs. Mwendo is a graduate of the SU Ag Center Small Farmer Leadership Institute class of 2011 and director of Backyard Gardeners Network. She is a community organizer based in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward who focuses on strengthening community through urban agriculture.

The award comes with a two-year fellowship that provides an annual stipend of $35,000 in addition to communications support, trainings, and travel. The program supports leaders working to create a food system that strengthens the health of communities, particularly children. For this class of Fellows, the selection committee focused on work that creates a just, equitable and healthy food system from its roots up. Over 560 individuals applied for fellowships.

The IATP Food and Society Fellows are innovative change makers who advocate for food and farming systems that are just and healthy for all people. Fellows use multi-media, policy advocacy and community engagement to promote fresh ideas on all aspects of the national food system—supporting culturally appropriate and environmentally sustainable farming, safe processing and distribution, fair labor standards, and healthy food accessible to all—especially our most vulnerable children.

“The Food and Community Fellows have always been change agents,” says Jim Harkness, President of IATP.” We invest in individuals that have a vision and plan for bettering the food system. These fellowships aren’t about incremental change; we want big visions that have the potential to provide our children with new opportunities for growing, processing, eating and thinking about food.”

The Food and Community Fellows program is funded by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Battle Creek, MI and the Woodcock Foundation, based in New York, New York.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy works locally and globally at the intersection of policy and practice to ensure fair and sustainable food, farm and trade systems. http://www.iatp.org/

To read the full story, visit http://www.foodandsocietyfellows.org/

Dr. Dawn Mellion-Patin directs the Small Farmer Agricultural Leadership Training Institute, a two-year course of study specifically designed to guide small, socially disadvantaged, limited resource and minority farmers through the transformative process of becoming successful agricultural entrepreneurs.

Please follow the SU Ag Center Small Farmer Leadership Institute on Facebook.at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Small-Farmer-Agricultural-Leadership-Institute/115169218522140

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