Duration:

3 hours 30 minutes

Description

Regardless of economic cycles, global pandemics or political administrations, food insecurity remains one of society’s ever-present concerns.  The commercial real estate sector has the unique opportunity to address this fundamental issue while improving the built environment. 

Join ULI as we convene a panel of thought leaders and subject matter experts to discuss how growing food in urban areas urban can ease access to food, reconnect communities to the practice of growing food, and engages the community on a variety of levels while increasing commercial real estate’s sustainability and ESG alignment.

Shani Fletcher grew up in Southern California, central Massachusetts, and rural Michigan.  Upon earning her BA in Anthropology at Wellesley College, she pursued a career path that included bookselling, conference organizing, youth work, grant writing, and urban farming.  A through-line in her professional life has been a commitment to the social justice community of Eastern Massachusetts.  She spent ten years in the youth development field.  She then realized that her dual passions for social justice and gardening could be combined through a career in food justice.  She became an urban farmer at ReVision Urban Farm in Dorchester where she worked for 6 seasons, serving first as the Grower and then as the Farm Manager.  After receiving her Master of Public Policy degree in Tufts University’s Department of Urban and Environmental Policy & Planning in 2018, she began working at the City of Boston as the Grassroots Program Manager, through which she helped community groups gain access to City land and federal money to start community gardens, urban farms, and other open spaces.  She now serves as the Director of GrowBoston, Boston’s first Office of Urban Agriculture. She has done a diverse range of volunteer work over the years, and her personal interests include cooking, travel, karaoke, and the liberation of all people from oppression.

Registration fee

$40-95