Dear RFRS Community,

Four years ago, RFRS was born and a team was assembled to serve our mission to humanize the food system. I also had a personal mission: to build the organization to a healthy stage when I could pass it on to a new leader and a capable team.

A founder is not always the best executive director (or CEO, if that’s your language).

As a founder, I knew I could/would/must give my whole heart, my passion, and my vision to the organization to take it off the ground. My job was to make the unimaginable tangible. My job was to birth this baby, help her learn to stand on her own two feet, and to trust her own worth. I am deeply passionate about RFRS and our work to provide probono storytelling coaching to food changemakers and connect eaters to the hearts and inspirations of our local food system, but that doesn’t mean holding on to this baby forever. A different capable hand can take the organization to a place of growth and reach that I am not necessarily equipped to do.

As a mother eventually lets go of her baby, it is time for me to let RFRS take flight.

Over the past year, our team has been clarifying and solidifying our work, going through the nitty-gritty details of who, how, and why we do what we do. We launched our storytelling facilitation training program to pass on the knowledge behind the privileged work of coaching food changemakers to community members. And, we built a dedicated and capable team: Brie, Kelly, Cat, as well as Kat who has been working on our podcast, and the amazing volunteer team we are deeply grateful for, (thank you, thank you, thank you).

Life also has another big plan for me, as my partner and I are expecting a human baby in early 2020. For this exciting reason, among others, it is time to find RFRS a new executive director who can take the organization to the next new height.

At the same time, this is not goodbye. I will be serving on RFRS’ new advisory “StoryBoard” and facilitating stories here and there. I can’t wait to see where RFRS goes. And I hope you, the RFRS community, will help us find the next leader for this organization and stand guard through the transition.

With love and gratitude,

Pei-Ru Ko

02/2020 UPDATE:
We’ve hired an Executive Director! Meet Jovida Ross in our latest post.