Food Policy Advocate Mark Winne and The Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future to Collaborate on Food System Policy Work

Feb 14, 2013

Mark Winne has begun working with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) in the role of senior adviser. Mr. Winne, a noted expert on food policy councils, is providing technical expertise in exploring opportunities for CLF to diversify its engagement in local and state food policy work.

Anne Palmer, director of the CLF Eating for the Future program, said, “Because of his expertise in state and local food policy and his direct, hands-on experience with community-level food projects and organizing, we think Mark can help us expand our capacity to better serve community-based organizations as well as local and state policymakers.”

Mr. Winne is a co-founder of a number of food and agriculture policy groups, including the City of Hartford Food Policy Commission, the Connecticut Food Policy Council, End Hunger Connecticut, and the national Community Food Security Coalition (CFSC), which terminated operations last year. He was an organizer and chairman of the Working Lands Alliance, a statewide coalition working to preserve Connecticut’s farmland, and is a founder of the Connecticut Farmland Trust.

Mr. Winne was a member of the U.S. Delegation to the 2000 World Conference on Food Security in Rome and is a 2001 recipient of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary’s Plow Honor Award. From 2002 until 2004, he was a Food and Society Policy Fellow, a position supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. From 1979 to 2003, Mr. Winne served as executive director of the Hartford Food System, a private non-profit agency working on food and hunger issues in central Connecticut

He currently writes, speaks, and consults extensively on community food system topics including hunger and food insecurity, local and regional agriculture, community food assessment, and food policy. In New Mexico, where he lives, he serves on the New Mexico Food and Agriculture Policy Council and the Southwest Grass-fed Livestock Alliance. Mr. Winne holds a bachelor’s degree from Bates College and a master’s degree from Southern New Hampshire University.

As former director of food policy for the CFSC, Mr. Winne continues to have responsibility for CFSC food policy resources, including publications and other outreach and educational materials. The Center will work closely with Mr. Winne to steward these resources and harness our collective expertise to explore new venues for influencing state and local food policy. The collaboration will begin with a series of assessments, planning, and outreach and fundraising activities; from there, the Center will be able to make an informed decision about launching a new project involving food policy councils.

"Communities across the country are recognizing how food policy is a necessary complement to their food system work. That is why there are now 193 food policy councils, compared to 111 in 2010. I am very excited to be working with the Center for a Livable Future because it will greatly expand our ability to respond to this ever-growing community interest,” said Mr. Winne.