Events
Webinar
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Digging In Virtual Screening
August 28, 2023 @ 1:00 pm – 2:30 pm PDT
Join us for the first virtual screening of the SAFSF-produced documentary Digging In. This film is designed to help funders understand concentration and consolidation, land access, and climate change and explore the connection these issues have to their work and the work of their grantees. We hope the film will be a tool to start new conversations and spark solutions we can work toward together. After the screening, join a conversation and Q&A with key partners who made this film possible and learn about plans for more virtual and in-person screenings of Digging In for both funder and general audiences in coming months.
For additional background, check out this recording of the panel that followed the first in-person screening at the June 2023 SAFSF Forum.
Digging In was underwritten by the Vatheuer Family Foundation, created and produced by Nathan.Works, a Kansas City-based documentary film and digital communications firm, in partnership with SAFSF.
This webinar is a funder-only event, registration is required.
SPEAKERS
Renee Brooks Catacalos, SAFSF Vice President, Strategy and Impact, provides strategic leadership, management, and guidance for SAFSF’s external-facing work with members, prospective members, the philanthropic community and the sustainable food and agriculture sector. As part of the executive leadership team, she ensures SAFSF’s work aligns with and supports the achievement of our strategic goals and ensures that strategy and impact are in sync with the organization’s operational and financial functions.
Renee joined SAFSF in 2019 with decades of experience in local and regional food systems and sustainable agriculture work in the Chesapeake Bay region, including as publisher and editor of Edible Chesapeake magazine and deputy director of Future Harvest – Chesapeake Alliance for Sustainable Agriculture. She has served on the boards of ECO City Farms and FRESHFARM Markets, on the Steering Team of the Chesapeake Foodshed Network and is the author of The Chesapeake Table: Your Guide to Eating Local. Renee also brings extensive experience in association management and communications from positions with the Houston Association of Realtors, the Houston International Protocol Alliance, VOLLMER Public Relations, and the American Institute of Architects, Potomac Valley Chapter. She served as Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Department of State in Mexico City, Mexico and Istanbul, Turkey.
Renee is a graduate of the University of Virginia and lives in University Park, Maryland with her husband, Damon. She enjoys absorbing history, culture and new culinary ideas through travel and is an avid home cook. She “maintains” a hardy herb garden which thrives on neglect and is thrilled to have relationships with an array of amazing farmers, ranchers, and food producers in the Chesapeake region that keep her pantry and freezer well-stocked for visits home from her two adult children.
Masika Henson, Digging In Host and Co-Producer, is committed to fighting climate change by building resilient communities. She focuses on the interconnection between land and water systems to address the effects of climate change. She has worked in many sectors, including philanthropy, non-profit, private, academic, entertainment and government. Masika fell in love with ecosystem-based water and climate solutions while mapping and restoring waterways in New York City with NYC Parks. More recently, she was a grantmaker working to support a just transition of national food systems at the 11th Hour Project. Before that, she led projects and communications for the Nature Conservancy’s Global Soil Science Program. She was also a grantmaker at the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, where she managed projects that improved California’s watersheds. Today, Masika supports movement building and systems change as a member of the Food and Farm Communications Fund Grants Advisory and Steering Committees. She is the host and narrator for the documentary Digging In, where she amplifies the voices and experiences of farmers throughout the U.S. In her spare time, Masika enjoys gardening at her Oakland, CA home. As a DJ, she communicates musically to build culture and connect with the people around her.
Nathan Lee Johnson, Digging In Director, is an Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker, photographer, designer, and communications consultant for change. He is the founder of Nathan.works, a digital agency that moves people to action. As a filmmaker and video content creator, Nathan crafts visual stories for fundraising as well as broadcast. His diverse filmography includes human interest stories, first-person reporting, social issue documentaries for public television, and nonprofit communications content. In 2021, he edited Heart of the City, a PBS production that won a Mid-America Emmy® Award for Best Long Form Documentary Content. Nathan’s career has been marked by a global reach. He has traveled and worked in over 40 countries, with a special focus on Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa. He speaks English, Spanish, and French.
Stefan Vatheuer, Executive Director of the Vatheuer Family Foundation, has led the foundation for the last five years. Before taking on the leadership role at VFF he trained in horticulture, received an undergraduate degree in plant biology, and worked in construction and real estate development while sitting on the VFF board and regularly traveling to Mexico. VFF has been working in Oaxaca, Mexico for over two decades with experience in rural agribusiness development and other social programs such as H2A migrant labor, scholarships, and microloans. Stefan is developing a social enterprise and impact investing initiative with VFF as a way to create sustainable community development. In addition to their programs in Mexico, VFF supports University initiatives such as medical research and scholarships, and programs addressing clean water, disaster, homelessness and other social welfare issues locally and globally. Stefan lives in the Seattle area with his wife and two young daughters, and admits the parents are probably learning more from the kids than the other way around!
MODERATOR
Maggie Mosley, SAFSF Communications Director, supports and touches each piece of SAFSF’s work and is key to celebrating power and impact. She oversees and manages all external communications, develops and maintains media relationships, and provides insights on organizational communications strategies and approaches.
Maggie holds a B.S. in Agriculture & Natural Resources from Berea College. Her background is in story-based communications strategy, grassroots fundraising, and community food system assessments. Her previous position focused on implementing and executing a story-based communications strategy for the grassroots, Kentucky farm and food policy organization, Community Farm Alliance. During her time there, she led 5 Community Food System Assessments across Appalachian Kentucky and managed the Breaking Beans: Food and Farm Story Project. She also participated in several regional networks, like What’s Next EKY and the Central Appalachian Network. Her time working in Appalachia deepened her love as a native and grew her understanding of the regional food systems that weave her home together. She is eager to bring this perspective and voice into SAFSF.
Maggie grew up on a tobacco farm in Bethel, Kentucky. She comes from a long line of farmers, gardeners, and cooks. They passed down to her their love for the land, their passion for people, and their way of connecting the two through food. She currently resides in Lexington, Kentucky with her husband Austin, and their dogs, Chip and Dolly. In her free time, she enjoys trying new recipes, journaling, and traveling.
