Help Emily Change America's Food Systems

This GoFundMe is to sponsor my partner, Emily Toal. She is aspiring to create a more just and sustainable food system.

Yesterday, she was accepted to the Weitzman School of Design Executive Program for Social Innovation Design. However, we cannot afford to pay the $4650 tuition fee. We are seeking the help of community fundraising to graciously support and empower Emily, a change-maker. This program will unlock her potential to aid those who are dedicated to creating and linking sustainable systems of agriculture that support farmers and feed millions.

Emily is a dreamer, and she intends to radically improve America’s food system. Her work has already begun in Pittsburgh, PA. In 2019, Emily conducted an analysis of mobile food businesses and shared-use kitchen spaces in Allegheny County, PA. Her research culminated in a comprehensive list of evidence-based recommendations for CRAFT, the Pittsburgh Food Policy Council, and the Allegheny County Health Department – major players in Pittsburgh’s food system. Emily’s research enlightened and instructed how these powers can gather and streamline resource availability. She also emphasized the creation of a guiding coalition (made of stakeholders from all parties) for oversight. The purpose of her project was to uncover where existing infrastructure was readily available to mobile food businesses and where stakeholders could engage in open communication. This was completed as her thesis project to obtain her Master of Arts in Food Studies from Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Emily is currently working part-time as Farm Educator at Medical University of South Carolina's Urban Farm in Charleston.  Due to COVID-19, professional development funding has stopped for her department, and they have denied her a full-time work status.  To make ends meet, she also works full time in retail.  Finances are tight for us, and education debts are always at the door. 

[This is Emily in her porch garden in Charleston, SC. Spring 2020]

Emily is young in her career, but her ability to build links between seemingly opposing systems towards a common, sustainable goal makes her an essential advocate for a more just food system in the US. The Executive Program for Social Innovation and Design will introduce Emily into a community of change-makers on a macro-level. Through this program, she will learn to work with disadvantaged populations, to educate populations who are ambivalent about change, and to mobilize populations that hold power. She will bring them together to re-imagine a food system that can sustain and provide for all of its people.

There is only one thing stopping Emily from helping to create a better food system in America – money. The harsh reality for many young people in America is lack of financial access, and Emily is no exception. Although Emily is more than qualified and appropriate for this certificate program, her finances preclude her from this unique opportunity. The University of Pennsylvania recognizes Emily’s potential; they want her. However, there are no scholarships for this Certificate program. With just under six-figures of student-loan debt, Emily cannot afford to take on more. Like countless American's, she is struggling under the financial strain caused by COVID-19. UPenn themselves recommend that applicants struggling to pay seek crowdfunding. It’s not something Emily ever thought she would do; however, we are here in earnest looking for the kindness of strangers.

We are seeking anyone willing to donate to help change America’s broken food system. We are in search of anyone willing to give a young woman, who has been told she has a bright future, a chance to realize that future.

We are asking funding for the price of the program - $4650. However, any donation helps. Thank you for reading.