METRO FOOD JUSTICE NETWORK

The CFAC (Cross-Campus Food Access Coalition) is a unique team of private colleges (and their sponsors) using a justice and equity framework to address food systems while sharing and collaborating on food access/food systems events. We act as a community to learn and refine best practices to address food insecurity on campus. We engage and develop interdisciplinary student leadership around food access, food systems, sustainability, and community organizing to learn more about what food insecurity looks like at each of our campuses, collectively, and share that story.

Jennifer Tacheny

Co-Founder & Leadership Team

Jennifer Tacheny, M.A. Pastoral Ministry, Director Young Adult Spirituality & Community Engagement with the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet (CSJ). Jennifer is co-founder of the CSJ Community Garden and St. Kate’s/CSJ Food Access Hub, where she addresses campus food insecurity, engages community members in CSJ mission, mentors St. Kate’s students, and extends the CSJ mission and network. Jennifer and her family participate in the development of the Agrégée form of affiliation with the CSJ community, run a small, organic vegetable business, and play music around town. She was a founding board member of Appetite for Change and believes in the power of food to build community.

Valentine Cadieux

Co-Founder & Leadership Team

Valentine Cadieux is an artist and geographer who teaches community agri-food systems and environmental and climate justice at Hamline University and with the Twin Cities Community Agricultural Land Trust and Commons Land initiatives. Valentine focuses on repair of land relationships, and rebuilding infrastructure for environmental relationships when they have been displaced and disrupted. Valentine works with learners across the Metro Food Justice Network to develop and support peer learning opportunities, such as the Upper Midwest focused community learning series on equitable farmland tenure (supported by USDA SARE, the Agrarian Trust, and Commons Land — please join us!).

Susi Keefe

Co-Founder & Leadership Team

Susi Keefe is Associate Professor and the Program Director for the Master’s of Public Health at St. Catherine University. She earned her undergraduate degree with a self-designed major from Mount Holyoke College in Culture, Health, and Science. She earned her A.M. and Ph.D. in Medical Anthropology with a focus on global health in East Africa from Brown University, where she was also a predoctoral trainee in Anthropological Demography in the Population Studies & Training Center. Based on over two years of ethnographic fieldwork in northern and coastal Tanzania, she has published articles and chapters on Islam and ethics, marriage and kinship, and intimate relationships among Pare and Swahili women. More recently her work includes collaborative, community engaged, social justice research projects in the Twin Cities, MN. Community engaged research topics include: health equity, food access, reproductive justice, and environmental health. She is the director of the Food Justice Research Team and a co-founder of the Cross Campus Food Access Coalition in the Twin Cities, a member of the leadership team of the Metro Food Justice Network. Her current project involve collaborations with: (1) Our Streets Minneapolis on how communities experience the Twin Cities highways (2) SEASA in northern Thailand on women’s experiences with nutrition, marriage, and pregnancy and (3) the National Health Commission Office of Thailand ​​on engaging Thailand’s national participatory health policy initiatives.

Olivia Mancia Chavez

Coordinator & MFJN Leadership Team

My name is Olivia Mancia Chavez. I recently graduated from Hamline University, majoring in Environmental Studies and minoring in Psychology. My interest in gardening and food access developed during my time at Hamline, influenced by my parents who are immigrant farmers from El Salvador. Their way of life, centered around community, land stewardship, and sustainable living, inspired me. I have fond memories of gathering eggs from my grandma’s backyard for breakfast, a cherished experience from my childhood in El Salvador.

I also credit my professors Valentine Cadieux and Susi Keefe for igniting my passion for gardening and improving food access. During my last two years at Hamline, I worked for the Center for Justice and Law, focusing on Environmental Justice, and served as the garden coordinator for the Hamline Gardens. Currently, I am the Coordinator for the Cross Campus Food Access Coalition, where I continue to pursue my passion for improving food access and security.

Aside from my work in food justice, I enjoy foraging, kayaking, tending to my house plants, and spending time with my partner, Nic, and our two cats, Cowboy and Rodeo. If you want to know more about my experiences in El Salvador, feel free to ask!

Nesteho Abdi

Intern

My Name is Nasteho Abdi. I am a second-year Public Health major at St. Catherine University, concentrating in Public Policy and Community Health, with a minor in Longevity and Aging. Currently, I intern with the Cross Campus Food Access Coalition, where I am dedicated to advancing food justice—an issue I am deeply passionate about.

With a background in leadership roles focused on justice in educational settings, I have collaborated with school districts and served in multiple student government offices. My experience in advocacy informs my work with the CFAC team as a student representative, where I strive to uplift the voices of my peers.

Apart from working with the CFAC team and on social & food justice, I love writing and reading poetry, biking, watching movies with my friends, and spending time with my siblings.

Meet Our Team
cfac@mfjn.org