Northeast Food Systems Forum
- Foundation House
- Mar 26
- 3 min read
Greenwich, CT - March 13, 2026
This blog post reflects discussions held under the Chatham House Rule. While the ideas and information shared are presented here, the identities and affiliations of contributors have been kept confidential to encourage open dialogue.
INTRODUCTION
On March 13, over 40 food practitioners from across the Northeast gathered at Foundation House to explore how regional collaboration can strengthen our food systems.
The keynote grounded the morning by exploring why regional scale matters for building resilient food systems, outlining four core strategies essential for any thriving regional system:
IMPACT
These strategies aren't siloed; they work in tandem, creating a web of interconnected support. Regional food systems benefit the land, the communities they feed, and the people doing the work.
A powerful example shared: when the USDA froze grants to 44 farms in January, Glynwood's community response raised over $1 million in weeks through the Hudson Valley Farm Relief Fund, ensuring every affected farm could continue their work. This embodied the spirit of "radical generosity" that participants were invited to bring to the day's collaborative work.
INITIATIVES: What Emerged in Our Breakout Discussions
This morning's conversations surfaced critical themes around building connectivity and shifting paradigms:
→ We need more connectivity: Among funders, around infrastructure, between our visions. As one participant noted: "We each hold a thread. How do we weave them together to build a bigger fabric?"
→ Paradigm shifts are happening: From nonprofit leaders sharing donor connections with each other to the emergence of trust-based philanthropy and impact investment becoming more accessible to food system leaders.
→ Language matters: Nonprofits and impact investors often speak different languages, making investment tools beyond traditional grants less accessible. Bridging this gap can unlock new resources and partnerships.
→ Regional convenings create momentum: Many participants left energized to build more formalized networks of regional food system changemakers, with interest in annual or biannual gatherings for deeper relationship-building and coordination.
The session closed with a powerful reminder: This is a "temporal opportunity to move the needle" on collective work. The relationships we build now, to the land, to each other, to markets and eaters, are what will sustain us when challenges arise.
For more details on the speakers and full event agenda, visit the event page.
A Model for Radical Generosity: A Resource-Sharing Exercise
A key element of the gathering was a resource-sharing exercise designed to move beyond networking into tangible action.
The approach was simple.
What made it powerful: As the board filled up, patterns emerged. When multiple organizations shared similar needs, conversations shifted from individual asks to collective solutions: shared infrastructure, coordinated advocacy, regional partnerships.
The exercise revealed a fundamental truth: Many challenges feel isolating until we see others facing them too. That visibility creates opportunities for collaboration at scale.
Participants have continued this work post-event through a living Google Sheet, adding new needs and offers, following up on connections, and building ongoing collaborations.
Why this exercise works:
Moves past transactional networking into genuine resource exchange
Creates psychological safety to ask for help
Reveals systemic patterns that point to collective solutions
Builds accountability through tangible commitments
Generates momentum that extends beyond the event
Bring this exercise to your network
Interested in co-facilitating similar convenings that catalyze real collaboration?
