Events
2025 SAFSF Forum Replay
- This event has passed.
Funding Communications and Journalism for Movement Building in Food Systems
September 9, 2025 @ 11:00 am – 12:30 pm PDT
The stories we tell—and who tells them—shape public perception, policy, and action in our food systems. While corporations spend billions to control narratives, progressive voices advocating for sustainability, equity, and health are often underfunded and overshadowed. The result: misinformation, polarization, and an urgent need for systemic narrative change.
This session, first presented at the 2025 SAFSF Forum, will explore the critical yet often overlooked role of communications and journalism play in food systems, including:
- How storytelling and independent journalism shape public opinion, policy, and movements.
- The impact of corporate influence, media consolidation, and public distrust in traditional media.
- Strategies for funders to support authentic, impactful storytelling that drives change.
Featuring insights from journalists, funders, and movement leaders, this discussion will examine challenges facing progressive communicators and explore funding strategies to strengthen independent journalism, amplify grassroots voices, and build coalitions for narrative change.
This webinar is open to all funders. Registrants will receive notes and key takeaways following the call.
Speakers
Ana Bradley, Executive Director, Sentient Media (Moderator)
Ana Bradley is the Executive Director of Sentient, the only non-profit, nonpartisan news outlet solely focused on reporting on the effects of industrial agriculture on the environment, public health, animals, rural communities and climate change. She has led Sentient since January 2020.
Prior to Sentient, she led an agency in London, where she worked with global clients and corporations for over a decade to help build dedicated digital communities. She championed women in tech and community building in creative industries. Ana is an experienced leader, digital content strategist and producer with over ten years of experience designing, producing, and distributing large-scale digital media campaigns.
Adam Hymans, Managing Director, Resource Media
Adam is an award-winning communications leader at Resource Media, bringing two decades of experience shaping culture, shifting policy and strengthening organizations for lasting impact.
Resource Media—a national 501(c)(3) creative change agency—delivers strategic communications, creative campaigns and capacity building designed to both drive change and build durable narrative power within fellow nonprofits, foundations, governments and movement networks.
Adam heads the food systems practice at RM and leads national and community-based initiatives at the intersection of climate, healthcare and civic engagement. His approach is grounded in ancestral wisdom, cutting-edge research, and the collective imagination of clients and community partners.
Neshani Jani, Director of Communications, HEAL Food Alliance
Neshani is the Communications Director at HEAL Food Alliance, leading media and communications strategy to amplify HEAL’s vision. She develops framing, narrative, messaging, and branding that elevate HEAL’s members and their impact. With over a decade of experience in nonprofit communications and strategic development—both locally and globally—she blends storytelling and strategy to grow power and shift narratives.
Based in Oakland, CA, on Ohlone land, Neshani lives, works, and builds community with purpose.
Esperanza Pallana, Executive Director, Wildseeds Fund
Esperanza Pallana is an executive leader with over 20 years of experience in nonprofit management, specializing in philanthropy, communications, and policy advocacy. As Executive Director of Wildseeds Fund, she provides strategic leadership to expand grantmaking capacity, strengthen community-led decision-making, and advance movement-led philanthropy.
Esperanza has pioneered innovative community investment strategies such as community-controlled capital processes, liberatory frameworks for impact investing, reparative fee programs, and collaborative fundraising. In a previous role, Esperanza leveraged over $79.6 million to direct measurable impact in equitable food systems. She has served on nonprofit and government boards, where she successfully navigated startup growth, scale-up phases, legacy transitions, and strategic overhauls. Esperanza has also consulted on equity initiatives, organizational development, and civic engagement for foundations, policy organizations, and cultural institutions. She is a creative and dedicated driver of movement-led investments and strategic partnerships to advance community self-determination, economic empowerment, and leadership development.
Josh Wise, Managing Director and Publisher, Public News Service
Josh Wise is the Managing Director and Publisher at Public News Service. Josh got his start working for social impact when his mom gave him baseball card money for helping with a fundraising mailing when he was 6. He still has an affinity for putting labels on envelopes. Since then Josh has held leadership positions in the nonprofit and social impact sectors for over a decade. Josh has a BA from Macalester College and Masters in Public and Nonprofit Administration from Metropolitan State University, and a Special Engineer’s license from the state of Minnesota which means he can operate low-pressure commercial boilers. It’s a long story. He lives in St. Paul, MN with his family of 5 and several animals.
