Oppression feeds on exhaustion. Freedom takes root in rest.

The 16 leaders awarded this year’s Castanea Fellowship are keeping alive a bold vision for how we should farm, fish and feed society. But they do so under unprecedented attack on growers and workers, and a climate that questions the very value of a liberated world for all.

Over the next 18 months in Castanea, fellows will create experiences where they can step away from their labor and strategize with each other from a place of profound joy. They’ll form lifelong bonds, not only with each other, but with community leaders in cities and towns across North America to share knowledge on how our food system can withstand and reimagine beyond our current challenges. Each fellow will receive a $40,000 award to move their ideas forward.

The 2025-26 Castanea Fellows include urban farmers and rural organizers, seed keepers and impact investors, chefs and mayoral policy champions, ancestral and cinematic storytellers, warriors for the health of people, labor, and land. They are multi-awarded and many-identitied and all have worked tirelessly for our future:

Deanna Lewis of Diversify Dietetics in California. She is a weight-inclusive Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and public health practitioner and the co-founder of Diversify Dietetics, a national non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the racial and ethnic diversity in the field of nutrition by empowering nutrition leaders of color. Deanna is passionate about creating system-level changes that advance equity especially for Black and Brown communities.

Dominic ‘Dom’ Hosack of Earth-Bound Building in Maryland. He is a farmer, builder and educator focused on supporting farms and land-based cooperatives from Maryland to rural Georgia to Brazil and Puerto Rico with infrastructure support and cooperative development.  He believes we must prioritize locally-owned, productive enterprises that honor nature & community, provide dignified wages and generate sustainable revenue to build resiliency against an increasingly unstable world. 

Duaba of the Wild Path Collective in Minnesota. They are a founding member of Wild Path Collective, a cooperative led by and for QTBIPOC people that creates access to land for the landless with the goal to regenerate culture and the soil by cultivating opportunities for our people to become land stewards, farmers, and land-based cultural workers. 

Edna Rodriguez of Rural Advancement Foundation International and Red Clover Collaborative in North Carolina. Under her leadership, RAFI has grown into a widely respected leader in the food and farm movement—recognized for its unwavering commitment to underserved farmers and its emphasis on integrity, transparency, and collaboration. Her strategic planning, program acumen and governance roles have expanded programs such as the Farmers of Color Network into a nationally recognized effort across the Southeast and the U.S. Caribbean, and the Climate and Equity Policy Project.

Esther Park of Cienega Capital in California. With more than 20 years experience in mission-based financial services, she is the CEO of Cienega Capital, a regenerative investment firm utilizing an integrated capital approach to systemic change in the areas of soil health, regenerative agriculture, and local food systems. Cienega Capital is also part of the #NoRegrets Initiative, a regenerative asset strategy focused on the health of agricultural soils and agricultural communities in North America. 

Fatuma Emmad of FrontLine Farming and Project Protect Food Systems Workers in Colorado. She is a farmer, seed keeper, and land steward working at the intersections of food, labor, and justice. As the Co-Founder, Executive Director, and Head Farmer of FrontLine Farming, Fatuma works to reclaim land as a space of sovereignty, healing, and resistance. She also co-convenes Project Protect Food Systems Workers, advocating for the rights and dignity of the people who grow our food. 

Fresh Roberson of Fresher Together in Illinois. They are an engineering and physics nerd turned farming chef, having professionally studied cooking in Thailand and the US. They are Director of the Chicago Bread Club and founder of Fresher Together, a collaborative food and farming project for healing, economic development, training and retreat. Their activism among communities of color, elders, queer folx, and youth led to their work to transform racial equity in their regional grain economy, make quality local food accessible, and to fight for accessible, quality affirming health care centering BIPOC, queer, GNC, trans, and fat folks.  

Kamal Bell of Sankofa Farms in North Carolina. He is a farmer, entrepreneur, children’s book author, lifelong learner, and devoted advocate of cultural expansion through agriculture. Driven by a desire to not only give back, but also to restore the legacy of farming in the African American community, he founded Sankofa Farms, teaching and educating the next generation on how to use agriculture as a tool for personal and collective growth.

Malia Kahaleʻinia Chun of Nā Pua Noʻeau Kauaʻi in Hawai’i. A mother and Program Director from the mokupuni of Kauaʻi and the ahupua’a of Wailuanuiahoano, she has dedicated the past 25 years of her life to providing cultural enrichment opportunities for the keiki of Kauaʻi to inspire them to become conscious and connected leaders in their community.  With a specific interest in the revitalization of the natural and traditional resources, cultural practices, and historical sites on Kauaʻi’, she actively works to develop partnerships within the community to facilitate and support community based projects and equip them with the tools to live a self-sustainable life in their ancestral home.    

Mariah Gladstone (Blackfeet, Cherokee) of Indigikitchen in Montana. After graduating from Columbia University, she returned home to Northwestern Montana where she developed Indigikitchen, a teaching tool dedicated to re-indigenizing our diets. Mariah has been recognized as a Luce Indigenous Knowledge Fellow through the First Nations Development Institute, a Culture of Health Leader through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and an MIT Solve Indigenous Communities Fellow. 

Mariolga Reyes Cruz of Fideicomiso de Tierras Comunitarias para la Agricultura Sostenible (FiTiCAS) in Puerto Rico.  She is an ecofeminist community psychologist, an agroecology promoter, and filmmaker from the islands of Puerto Rico. She works to amplify the efforts of local agroecologists who are growing food sovereignty in Puerto Rico and has co-produced three award-winning documentaries. After hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, she began organizing to create FiTiCAS, the first agrarian Community Land Trust in the islands,protecting farmland in perpetuity as a commons to secure just and equitable access to land for generations of landless farmers. 

Matthew ‘Matte’ Wilson of Sicangu Community Development Corporation in Sicáŋğu Lak̇óta Oyáte and South Dakota. He has played a key role in expanding initiatives that empower Lakota communities through sustainable agriculture, food access, and cultural revitalization. He currently serves as Deputy Director at Sicáŋğu Community Development Corporation (Sicáŋğu CDC) where he has led the development and expansion of programs such as a farm apprenticeship program, the Sicáŋğu Harvest Market, and a Tribally Supported Agriculture program, all of which increase local food access and support Indigenous producers. 

Nick Davis of Community Food Navigator in Illinois. He is a storyteller, DJ, cook, and organizer committed to building compassionate relationships that create capacity for healing, nourishment, and agency for his people. Nick has played many roles in the Chicago food system—community organizer, restaurant cook, communications strategist, policy advocate, volunteer coordinator. At the Community Food Navigator he is responsible for increasing coordination in our regional food system, building power among growers of color, and telling stories that move us closer to liberation and life. 

Ora Kemp of the New York City Mayor's Office of Food Policy. A passionate food sovereignty advocate and senior policy advisor, she centers food as an inherent human right and works collaboratively to construct innovative and sustainable approaches for building healthy neighborhoods and resilient food systems. With a background in regulatory affairs, hospitality, organizational management, emergency food, nutrition education, and stakeholder partnerships at city, state, and federal levels, she shapes comprehensive proposals that are focused on attainability and impact.

Sheelah Muhammad of S Mpact Consulting in Illinois. She is a 25+ year visionary social entrepreneur and strategic consultant who consistently focuses on disrupting the status quo by building self-determined communities and dismantling patterns of oppression. As Lead Strategist of S Mpact Consulting, Sheelah partners with organizations dedicated to building resilient food systems, advancing climate justice and fostering Black and Indigenous food sovereignty. She co-founded Fresh Moves, an award-winning mobile produce market that became a national model for addressing food access and community building. In philanthropy, Sheelah managed a $35 million portfolio for Gulf Coast rebuilding efforts at the Oprah Winfrey Foundation. 

Suzanne Adely of the Food Chain Workers Alliance in New York. She is a movement lawyer and long-time Arab community organizer, with a background in international labor organizing and global human rights. For the past seven years, she has worked with the Food Chain Workers Alliance (FCWA), a movement of over 30 worker-based organizations focused on building the infrastructure of the food worker movement, to increase organized worker density in the food economy while advancing broader movements for justice.. She has been blessed with radical and revolutionary mentors here and abroad, who introduced her to using law as a tool to defend and support the advancement of people’s struggles for liberation challenging global capitalist, imperialist power.