Growing up in a food desert, Michael was only able to understand food as a tool for survival. Over time, Michael started to see food for what it truly is, a tool to heal and resist. Through his work as a farmer, activist, and community bridge builder at Sweet Freedom Farm, he seeks to give marginalized people, including prisoners, agency in defining their own health through education, opportunity, and access. Michael became active in the food justice movement while he was serving his 14-year prison sentence. He doubled down on his efforts immediately after his release in February of 2022. Since his release, Michael has worked towards creating a food justice network that can expand his overall impact. Michael has helped to pioneer the bring back care packages movement, speaking about it in interviews and publishing an article about it. He has worked with the Sing Sing Family Collective; RAPP (Releasing Ageing People in Prison campaign); All Of Us; Vocal-NY; Kites Nest; Center for Community Alternatives, and the Shared Plate Fun. As a bridge-builder, Michael created a panel discussion series to highlight the struggles of formerly incarcerated people and has been hosting farm stands at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. He attends rallies and protests; advocates to senators and assembly members; while continuing to write and speak about the issues he cares about.

Brittany Florio (she / her) is the program manager at Farm to Institution New England. In this role, Britt managing program development, outreach, and communications to catalyze change in the dynamic farm to institution movement. She has been working in the food system since 2010. Prior to her work at FINE, Britt co-owned a regenerative herb and vegetable farm business in the Hudson Valley, New York. After leaving the farm life, she worked at UMass Amherst as the Sustainability Coordinator for UMass Dining and as an adjunct faculty member, teaching Sustainability Science. Britt holds a Bachelor’s degree in Agriculture and Natural Resources from the University of Connecticut and a Master’s degree in Sustainability Science with a concentration in Sustainable Food Systems and Agriculture from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. In her free time, Britt loves fermenting foods, kayaking, foraging, and making wild flower bouquets.

In 2010, Jalal began farming with Wassaic Community Farm – growing produce for farmers markets while running a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and gleaning project. While at Wassaic Community Farm Jalal co-founded the Freedom Food Alliance and the Victory Bus Project. The Freedom Food Alliance is a collective of small rural and urban farmers, activists, artists, community folks and political prisoners who use food as an organizing tool. The Alliance founded the Victory Bus Project to connect urban and rural communities and to support families of prisoners by providing transportation (along with a box of farm-fresh food) for folks visiting prisoners in the Hudson Valley. In 2013, Jalal started Sweet Freedom Farm in Germantown, NY, to continue the work of the Alliance. Sweet Freedom Farm is growing and distributing vegetables, grains, herbs, and maple syrup, prioritizing the folks affected by the incarceration system. Sweet Freedom is also a training site for young BIPOC farmers, a gathering space for partnering projects in the alliance, and building a Grow Food, Not Prison movement.

Jennifer joined CANY as Executive Director in 2018. She previously held positions at the New York City Mayor’s Office of Criminal Justice, the San Francisco Adult Probation Department, and the San Francisco Public Defender’s Office. Jennifer started her career as Program Director at Prison University Project (now Mount Tamalpais College) running the day-to-day operations of a college program at San Quentin State Prison in California. Jennifer holds a BA from the College of William and Mary, an MA from Hollins University, and an MFA from Indiana University Bloomington. She has taught creative writing workshops in prisons, jails, juvenile detention facilities, and community arts studios.

Leslie Soble (she/her) manages the Food in Prison Project and is the lead author of Impact Justice’s national report, Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison. An ethnographer and folklorist, she has spent over five years immersed in research on the carceral eating experience and its impacts on individuals, communities, and the environment. In her current role, she oversees the organization’s initiatives at the intersection of food and incarceration.

Beyond Impact Justice, Leslie is the founder and artistic director of Story Soup, a project that creates contexts for dialogue across cultural and generational borders through food and narrative. Her ongoing academic research focuses on food as a cultural text, aesthetic domain, and site of performance. Leslie also serves as a teaching artist with various DC-based arts programs and has over a decade of experience designing and facilitating cultural competency workshops to explore identity, systems of oppression, and intercultural/intergenerational communication.

Leslie holds an MA in cultural sustainability from Goucher College, with a focus on the intersection of foodways, narrative theory, and social practice art, and received her BA in gender studies from Brown University, where her course of study focused on grassroots movements for social change.