TCDG Associates Lechelle-Antonia Gray and Rae Carter Co-create Innovative Session at 13th Annual Vermont Farm to Plate Gathering

At the TCDG summer gathering, Lechelle and Rae began chatting about their shared experiences working with Vermont food system–Lechelle as the community relations manager at Hunger Free Vermont and member of both the Farm to Plate Network Steering Network Committee and Farm to Plate Network Food Security Topic Exchange and Rae as a facilitator and culture builder at EmpowR Transformation who just completed a scope of work for revisioning the Vermont Farm Show and served as the former communications director for the Vermont Farm to Plate Network.

In their shared commitments to equity work, this conversation led Lechelle and Rae to submit a proposal to the 13th Farm to Plate Gathering, an annual conference to support statewide implementation of the Farm to Plate Vermont Agriculture and Food System Plan for economic viability, environmental resilience, and social justice. The theme for this year’s gathering–Transformational Change–was suggested by Lechelle in her leadership role on the Farm to Plate Steering Committee. 

Lechelle and Rae’s workshop: Evolution in a State Resistant to Change - Cultivate Courage to Shift Perspective was accepted and was one of the most popular sessions at the conference.

The session offered applied skills to encourage collaborative community building through an immersive storytelling experience. Lechelle and Rae facilitated experiential learning and dialogue to let go of perfection, ego, and fear and connect with where these characteristics live in the body. Personal story sharing and cultural somatics practices were introduced as a way to regulate group nervous systems to expand capacity for challenging conversations and be more inclusive of different perspectives in transformative change innovation.

Lechelle also cofacilitated the session: Land Access, Food Sovereignty, and the Vital Role of Climate as a Catalyst for Transformation with Ari Rockland-Miller from the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets. Panelists includes Sarah Waring, state director of rural development at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Josh Allen, state outreach coordinator and LGBTQ+ special emphasis program manager at the Natural Resources Conservation Services (NRCS) division of USDA, Samantha Langevin, representative of Vermont RELEAF Collective (racial equity in land, environment, agriculture, and food) on the Land Access and Opportunity Board, and Beverly Little Thunder, a Lakota Two-Spirit elder and founder of Kunsi Keya Tamakoce–an LGBTQIA+ matriarchal community dedicated to sharing Lakota teachings & ceremonies.

We love seeing TCDG associates collaborating with each other and bringing their expertise to Vermont agriculture and food system work. Well done Lechelle and Rae!