Lea Howe
she/her
PLANTS Project Director
Lea joined the Chef Ann Foundation team in June 2023 and serves as the organization’s PLANTS Project Director. In this role, she leads our work to develop and implement the Healthy Meals Incentives School Food System Transformation Sub-Grants-Cooperative Agreement to build a more fair, resilient and equitable food supply chain. The project is designed to incentivize innovative partnerships between school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and community partners to strengthen the availability of and access to nutritious foods in the K-12 school food marketplace.
Lea Howe
she/her
PLANTS Project Director
Lea joined the Chef Ann Foundation team in June 2023 and serves as the organization’s PLANTS Project Director. In this role, she leads our work to develop and implement the Healthy Meals Incentives School Food System Transformation Sub-Grants-Cooperative Agreement to build a more fair, resilient and equitable food supply chain. The project is designed to incentivize innovative partnerships between school districts, food producers, suppliers, distributors, and community partners to strengthen the availability of and access to nutritious foods in the K-12 school food marketplace.
Prior to joining CAF, Lea spent the past 9 years working for DC Greens, a DC-based health equity non-profit where she designed programs, led campaigns and advocated for policies that promote sustainable food systems and supported the implementation of values-aligned institutional food service models. She was the driving force behind several major initiatives to improve institutional food in the District, including the DC Good Food Purchasing Program Coalition, DCPS School Food Collaborative, the DC Farm to School Network, and the DC Jail Food Community Conversation Series. Prior to DC Greens, Lea served as a FoodCorps Service Member and Fellow in Montana for 2 years. Lea also serves on the board of Common Market Mid-Atlantic and served as the Core Partner for the National Farm to School Network for 6 years. She earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology at Barnard College.
During her free time, you’ll find Lea hanging with her active and outdoorsy family, including her husband and their two young kids. Lea loves running, baking bread, and spending as much time as possible getting her hands dirty on her friends’ farms!
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