The World Food Prize Foundation

2020 Speaker | Míchi López

Míchi López
Access and Equity Coordinator, Iowa Valley RC&D

Míchi López is the Access and Equity Coordinator for Iowa Valley RC&D. Started in 1998, the Iowa Valley RC&D works to cultivate system change in Eastern Iowa in the areas of community food systems and creative placemaking. Grow: Johnson County is a program of Iowa Valley RC&D created in 2015 to address the need for fresh produce at more than a dozen hunger-relief agencies in Johnson County. 


Míchi brings a lens of racial equity to project development and project implementation for Iowa Valley RC&D. She works to identify gaps within current systems, assess entry points for change, determine ways that partners can more effectively work together for a just food system, and elevate voices of BIPOC. Míchi leads harvest, packing, and distribution for the Grow Program, manages the Beyond Rootimentary Educational Initiative and the Food Sovereignty Initiative, and supervises the on-farm apprenticeships. Food sovereignty is the right of peoples to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and their right to define their own food and agriculture systems.

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