Our vision, mission, and values define who we are. They provide the fundamental structure for the organization. They guide our actions and our behaviors. They influence the way we work within the organization and with others.
The vision, mission, and values were developed through a process of reflection with the SAFSF staff and Steering Committee (current and former), and with additional input from SAFSF members. The purpose of rewriting our existing vision, mission, and values is to make more explicit our long-standing commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion and do a better, more concise, and clearer job of communicating our work.
The 21st century food movement has the opportunity and, we believe, the responsibility, to include and engage the full range of people and communities in moving forward. Equity work requires planning, commitment and continual reflection. It is multifaceted and, to be effective, involves “walking the talk,” changing the self as well as the system. It is controversial. Equity work is about fundamental change, which is often vigorously resisted. Those who benefit from the way society is currently organized, or who are unaware of the pervasiveness of discrimination, or who are simply comfortable with the status quo, are often reluctant to contemplate new ways of doing things.
For SAFSF this work is not optional—it is essential and must be woven into the strategic plans and life of our organization as well as the whole of the good food movement. We believe SAFSF can play a valuable role in fostering the philanthropic leadership that is critical to bring together the individual and collective ideas and resources to ensure a vibrant, healthy, and just food system for all. While this is often hard and uncertain, SAFSF strives to approach the work with a sense of joy by building relationships, embracing diverse ideas and voices, and appreciating that solutions and reform only come about when there is a collective sense of inclusion.
