Patricia Allen - Black Indigenous People of Color Food and Farming Network

Sky High Farm Grant award-winner, Patricia “Patty’ Allen is the founding executive director of the Black Indigenous People of Color Food and Farming Network (BFFN) based in Yellow Springs, Ohio. BFFN’s goals are improving the production and distribution of food and advocating for and creating an equitable food system in Ohio that ensures greater access to locally produced, affordable, nutritious food to historically deprived and under-resourced communities of color.

Founded in 2021 by a Yellow Springs agricultural center, BFFN became an independent 501 {c}3 in 2024. “The Sky High Farm Grant helped us cover the new administrative costs associated with becoming a non-profit start-up,” said Patty. “Funds were used to pay for our first year of directors and officers’ insurance. 2024 also marked BFFN’s first year without a fiscal sponsor for our signature event, the BFFN Black Farming Conference. The grant paid for our event liability insurance.”

In addition to offering the BFFN Policy Fellowship (funded through a SARE grant), the network hosts online educational and networking roundtables for our members. A highlight of 2024 included Farm Bill zoom sessions for our members with Ohio Congress Member Shontel Brown (D-Cleveland), now Vice Ranking Member on the House Committee of Agriculture and a senior professional staff member for the Senate Committee Chair on Agriculture Nutrition and Forestry, former Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow.