The Origin of Feed Black Futures
Feed Black Futures began in 2020 as an urgent response to the intersecting crises of COVID-19, food insecurity, and incarceration. What started as an effort to provide fresh food to Black families impacted by the carceral system quickly grew: an initial crowdfunding goal of $10,000 generated $90,000 in community support. The response affirmed both the immediate need and the possibility of building something more enduring.
Feed Black Futures began in response to a crisis, but our work has grown through the vision and labor of many people. We honor our origins while continuing to evolve—building toward a future in which Black communities have the collective power to steward land, shape food economies, care for one another, and determine the conditions of our own lives.
Ali Anderson founded Feed Black Futures out of that emergency response moment, with significant early support and leadership from Ms. Melinda Johnson, Ms. Betty McKay, Meron Tebeje, Delaine Powerful, Jamilah Felix, and Arissa Hall. Together with farmers, families, organizers, and community partners, they established the foundation for an organization rooted in Black food sovereignty and collective care.
As Feed Black Futures grew, so did the scope of its work. After establishing its headquarters in the Bay Area, FBF expanded food distribution across California while investing in longer-term pathways toward food sovereignty. The organization supported edible gardens, connected community members with farmer training, and directed resources toward Black and other BIPOC farmers and food producers. What began as emergency food distribution increasingly became an exploration of a larger question: what would it take for Black communities not simply to access food, but to collectively shape and govern the systems that sustain us?
In 2024, Sophi Wilmore joined Ali as Co-Executive Director and helped lead Feed Black Futures into its next phase of organizational and political development. Together, Ali and Sophi have shaped FBF's evolution from a primarily direct-service and mutual-aid effort into an organization building toward a broader vision of Black food and land sovereignty. Sophi has played a central role in developing the organizational infrastructure, strategy, communications, financial systems, and political framing needed to support that evolution, while helping deepen FBF's work around collective governance, land stewardship, solidarity economies, political education, and the relationship between food sovereignty and abolition.
Today, Ali and Sophi co-lead Feed Black Futures with complementary areas of leadership, alongside a growing staff, Leadership Council, and ecosystem of community partners. Under their shared leadership, FBF is building connections between immediate material care and long-term systems transformation: resourcing communities and BIPOC farmers today while developing the relationships, political education, governance structures, and land-based strategies necessary for lasting self-determination.
Sophi Wilmore (left) and Ali Anderson (right)
“With a strengthened team and deepened roots, we continue to expand our work, not just nourishing communities but transforming the systems that determine who has access to land, food, and self-determination.”
Where We Are Now
Today, our work is breaking cycles of food insecurity and dependence by resourcing our communities through mutual aid, emergency food support, farmer training, and resource connection. We are shifting power by engaging our Leadership Council and members in advocacy and political education, strengthening Black food ecosystems and ensuring community-led transformation. We are building networks of food growers, land stewards, and organizers to guarantee food security and resilience for our members. And we are supporting our communities in collectively governing and stewarding land, creating sustainable, equitable systems that ensure our futures are in our own hands.
Our work is about more than food—it’s about liberation, healing, and reclaiming what was taken. Learn more about our mission and impact by visiting our About Us page
