Acknowledgement and Accountability

Here at Partners IN Food and Farming (PIFF), we believe in and work towards a world that is inclusive, honest, and in which equitable outcomes exist for people across Indiana.  We work hard to empower a broad diversity of voices on our Board of Directors and our Advisory Panel, to represent Indiana across racial, gender, geographic, and socioeconomic lines. 

Equity is the compass that guides our work. PIFF actively seeks out partnerships and collaborations that align with our commitment to fairness, ensuring that no one is left behind in our collective pursuit of a sustainable food future.

We acknowledge that we are a primarily white and cis-gender- led organization working in a landscape that contains a multitude of individuals. We work diligently to ensure we are including, inviting, and listening to voices other than our own. We recognize that the food system is inherently unjust and our goal is to shed light and make change in and on these systemic issues.

Our Promises and Actions:

• Staff of PIFF will participate in anti-racist training to continuously educate and keep forefront our commitment to creating an equity centered  organization and food and farming community in Indiana.

• Actively listen to underserved farmers via our Advisory Council and our Focus Groups, to gather input that informs our efforts

• In our Mentorship program: we hold 30% of our mentee seats for BIPOC and LGBT+ farmers, and specifically consider racial, socio-economic, and gender diversity in mentor and mentee selection.

• Actively identify and uplift  BIPOC, female, and gender nonconforming farmers, ranchers, and growers in the Indiana landscape and create opportunities for them to teach, lead, train in areas of their expertise in farming and ranching.

• Continually seek opportunities to co-create, co-host, and collaborate on programs and events with underrepresented farmers, including female farmers, BIPOC farmers, beginning farmers, and military veteran farmers.

• Commit to offering low-to-no cost programming and events to ensure financial accessibility to all of our audience. Where programs have a cost, we will offer sliding scale and/or scholarship options.

• Curating resources for Hoosiers who want to make our food system more just. 

• Conduct equitable recruitment and election practices for Board members to ensure a representative Board that reflects our constituencies. 

• Ensure transparency of organizational practices with sharing of governing documents and annual reports via our website.