2010 Fellows

Fellows will be invited to a Food Systems Alliance in Fresno County. A Food System Alliance (FSA) is county-based coalition of people working to create a sustainable local food system. The local food system includes food producers, distributors, and consumers. A sustainable local food system is one where local growers are economically viable, the physical environment is unpolluted, and consumers have access to healthy food.

The 2010 Fellows:

Kara Brodfuehrer is a Staff Attorney for California Rural Legal Assistance's Community Equity Initiative Project based in Fresno, California. Her work focuses on addressing infrastructure deficits (including a lack of access to safe and affordable drinking water, sewer, and healthy food) environmental justice, and political representation issues impacting rural disadvantaged unincorporated communities in the San Joaquin Valley. Kara also has a long history of activism around environmental, racial, and economic justice issues and against the prison industrial complex. She has a B.S. from the State University of New York at Albany and a J.D. from Golden Gate University School of Law.

Ali Espinoza is the daughter of Mexican migrant farmworkers and was raised in California and Michoacan, Mexico. She earned her Bachelor's of Science degree from California State University, Fresno and double majored in Health Science with an emphasis in Community Health and Chicano Studies. She is a student farmer at the CSU, Fresno Organic Farm and is currently completing a Master Food Preserver Certification Program with hopes of teaching the public how to preserve food using safe canning, dehydrating, and freezing methods. She is in the process of applying to graduate school for a Master's in Public Health degree. Her passions include urban gardening, sustainability, and health.

Ken Grimes works with the United States Department of Agriculture as a Soil Conservationist and Community Outreach Coordinator for Small Farmers. He grew up on a farm in the Caribbean where they produced cocoa, coffee and vegetable crops before he graduated from Fresno State with a degree in Agriculture and Agronomy. Ken is also the technical advisor for the African American Farmers of California and has coordinated field training to Sikh and Spanish speaking farmers in soil management and irrigation management. Ken prides himself on helping farmers to access the resources needed to develop marketing strategies to best serve the public needs.

Dayatra Latin currently is the Director of Programs and Development with Community Food Bank (CFB) in Fresno. She has been with CFB over eight years and like most in the non-profit arena wears multiple hats. She is extremely passionate about the mission of CFB to end hunger in the Central Valley and counts it a blessing to provide clients with such a basic need; food. Within the community she is a frequent keynote speaker dealing with organizational development, motivating and inspiring individual, group and community change. She is a dedicated and proud mom to three fantastic kids; you can often find her cheering her kids on at football games, track meets, choral performances and much more.

Tania L. Pacheco is a research analyst at the Central Valley Health Policy Institute. Tania is pursuing her doctoral studies in medical sociology at University of California, San Francisco. She received a degree in sociology at CSU, Fresno, while also attaining a minor in psychology, and the Cross-Cultural Competency and American Humanics Nonprofit Leadership and Management certifications. Tania has worked on numerous community-based participatory research projects and program evaluations, some including nutrition-related programming. Tania was born in Mexico City and raised in the Central Valley. She hopes that her work will contribute to the wellness and sustainability of her community.

Sarah Sharpe has been the Director for Environmental Health for Fresno Metro Ministry since August 2008. A third generation Valley resident, Sarah has a background in grassroots organizing for social justice, labor rights, environmental justice and immigrant's rights in the San Joaquin Valley. As a former community organizer with the United Farm Workers in Delano, Sarah coordinated the Farm Worker Safe Drinking Water Program. Sarah is currently a member of the Central Valley Air Quality (CVAQ) Coalition's Steering Committee, the Steering Committee for Californians for Pesticide Reform (CPR), and is the Board President for the Central California Environmental Justice Network (CCEJN).

Daniela Simunovic has worked as a Community Organizer for the Center on Race, Poverty, and the Environment in Delano, Calif. since 2006. As an organizer she works with residents of rural communities in the Southern San Joaquin Valley helping them to develop their leadership capacity and build power to address the environmental and social issues affecting their community. She currently directs the Center’s Power to the People Campaign, which is working with CRPE’s grassroots leadership to develop a vision for Green Economic Development in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. Born in Santiago, Chile she came to the US with her family at the age of 2. After living in Los Angeles her family moved to the San Joaquin Valley, which she now considers home. Prior to joining CRPE Daniela served as the Assistant Environmental Health Director at Fresno Metro Ministry where she worked on air quality issues and published “Creando Conexiones,” a Spanish language consumer guide to social services in Fresno County. Daniela holds a B.A. in Sociology with a minor in Justice and Community from St. Mary’s College of California in Moraga. In college she gained organizing experience working on immigrant rights and labor issues. Daniela was a 2008-2009 fellow in the Women’s Policy Institute, a program offered by the Women’s Foundation for California, and is currently a fellow in the Rockwood Institute’s Fellowship for California Leaders of Color. She serves on the Steering Committee for the California Apollo Alliance.

Jensen Vang grew up helping on the family farm and selling their specialty crops at Los Angeles farmers’ markets. Today, he supports other farmers efforts to market their products as the Community Service Coordinator and Farmers’ Market Manager at the Fresno County Economic Opportunities Commission. Recently, Jensen has worked in collaboration with community stakeholders to create the Central Valley Farmers Market Association, started two new markets, and implemented a nutrition incentive to increase the sale of specialty crops while providing better access to fresh fruits and veggies for seniors and recipients of WIC and SNAP. In the past, he has also worked with the Fresno Community Development Financial Institution and as a field representative through the University of California, Co-op Extension.

Loren Werth is the executive director of Food 4 Thought, LLC, a Fresno-based company dedicated to bringing the highest quality of fresh produce into schools. He works with school districts and county officials to implement and support key nutrition education programs including Harvest of the Month and Farmers Market on Campus. Through the Farm to School program, Loren maintains a network of small, family-owned California farms in order to serve the specific needs of school nutrition programs. The Farmers Market on Campus program broadens, enhances and complements other nutrition education programs. Food 4 Thought's programs are designed to be fun and festive. They expose students to new, healthy food choices for themselves and their families, and allow them to learn about the value of money.