The search is over! We are beyond excited to introduce you to Jovida Ross, the new Executive Director of Real Food Real Stories. Jovida brings decades of experience, a big heart, and a bright spirit to the team.

Read on for a note from Jovida!

Dear RFRS Community,

Life worked some magic to bring me to Real Food Real Stories. Joining this community as the next Executive Director feels like a beautiful opportunity to weave together different threads of my previous experiences: an appreciation for real food and everything that goes into making it; practices of deep listening, cultural strategy, and community building; a couple of decades working in the social sector; and a commitment to future generations.

I grew up playing in my mother’s vegetable garden. I’m so grateful that I had childhood experiences growing food, collecting chicken eggs, and harvesting honey. My younger brothers and I ran freely in the woods around our home in rural Northern California. Those woods are changing now. By looking at tree rings, researchers have identified that the drought between 2011-2017 was the driest period this region has experienced in at least 1200 years. The clear, snowmelt-fed rivers I swam in as a child got really low, slow, and grew algae. Forests, weakened by drought, were dying of disease. And, of course, this deep drought was the precursor to some of the most devastating wildfires our state has ever experienced.

We are facing a collective existential crisis. Are we going to continue living in ways that harm life itself? Or, are we going to realign our lives with the ecologies we depend on, and shift from an extractive economy to a regenerative one?

Six years ago I was working with Movement Strategy Center, grappling with exactly this question. With a core team of collaborators, I co-created a social innovation process around the guiding question: How do we transition from a world of domination and extraction to a world of regeneration, resilience, and interdependence? Between 2015-2019, over 200 movement leaders from across the country came through our Transition Labs -- immersive gatherings that blended embodied wisdom, design methodology, and movement strategy -- to explore this question. As we explored, the pivotal role of culture became clear. The story of how we see ourselves, each other, and the world we live in shapes everything we create, including social and economic systems.

This is why I am thrilled to join Real Food Real Stories. Food and story are both fundamental ways that people experience and create culture. When we break bread together, listen generously, share authentically, and celebrate the stories that are often marginalized in an extractive economy, we are creating a culture that honors our connections. We connect on a human level; we connect with our foodshed; we connect with what matters. This culture values the people whose care creates the food that nourishes us, like farmer Kelly Carlisle of Acta Non Verba, and chef Nite Yun of Nyum Bai. This culture appreciates the creative risks that entrepreneurs take to solve real problems, like how Kayla Abe of Ugly Pickle Co diverts food waste into delicious pickles. It is a culture that celebrates fresh perspectives, such as when Aileen Suzara of Sariwa Kitchen told us how she's rewoven connections with ancestral traditions that had felt broken. These are cultural qualities we need, to heal the ruptures that reverberate through our communities and our ecosystems.

How might we cultivate regenerative cultures? How do we understand ourselves in relationship with each other, with the water, land, labor, and creativity that make our lives possible? How can we care for the people who will live 100 years from now? The community that has grown through RFRS gatherings has insights to share with the world. And, I am excited to dig into these questions, and discover new insights, together.

I am so glad to be on this journey with you!

Jovida Ross