Since 2018, the Food Systems Leadership Network has been connecting, supporting, and resourcing food systems leaders from across the country to strengthen their efforts at creating more equitable food systems. Over the years, the FSLN has interviewed a handful of the many leaders in this field and in the network. Willful Wildflowers is a compilation of these interviews that celebrates the passion, dedication, and tenacity of folks leading food systems change across the country.

Check out the profiles of Qiana and other food systems leaders across the nation in this series.

This report illuminates the experiences, struggles, and recommendations of regional community leaders and small scale farmers in their ongoing and diverse efforts to increase SNAP/EBT redemption and food access within local direct farm to consumer models such as farmers markets, CSAs, and farm stands. This report was prepared by QJM Multiprise along with co-authors Qiana Mickie, Maggie Israel, Hannah Tackett, and Charlotte Voelkel.

The book lifts up the impacts of the pandemic on our food and agricultural system, but also highlights alternative solutions and strategies from grassroots leaders and activists from around the world. The US contribution is my chapter, “Solidarity, Not Charity: Emergent Strategies from the Front Lines on Fostering a Food-Based Solidarity Economy in the United States”.

Afropunk Therese Nelson in conversation with Qiana about charity vs. solidarity economies, the power of intentional community building, and joining the good food movement where your gifts and spirit lie.

When the pandemic first hit in the U.S., lines at food pantries and banks spiked, the unemployment rate exponentially increased, and COVID-19 began to hit communities of color the hardest.

Qiana joins Chef Tiffani Rozier, the host of the Afros + Knives podcast, to discuss the thinking behind her leadership transition, building safe and constructive workplaces for people of color—especially women, and ways in which white supremacy can impact the food justice space.

Advisory Council for a radical landscape design firm to welcomed a dozen wise and beloved community members to join for a facilitated day of thoughtful learning and brainstorming. Building wisdom to continue growing into greater alignment with their true work.

What We Eat: Food is Justice

The Black Futures Lab transforms Black communities into constituencies that change the way power operates—locally, statewide and nationally. The

Urban Farming: Undoing a Legacy of Land Theft and White Washing with Qiana Mickie along with Sheryll Durrant of Kelly Street Garden and Rosalba Lopez Ramirez of Black Zocalo

Krystal Oriahda of National Farm to School Network and Qiana discuss what food apartheid is and how we end it in our communities.

HEAL School of Political Leadership leaders are teams of farmers, community activists, organizers, educators, and advocates working in diverse communities across the United States.

Fresh Connect Free Training Series

Food Equity: The Building Blocks of Cultivating Neighborhood Resiliency