Founder, Organizer. Diana Sánchez is originally from Puebla, Mexico. She came to the United States at age four and attended school in Port Chester and Yonkers. She started advocating for the community as a young teen, becoming the first student to speak in a Yonkers town hall against Yonkers’ public school budget cuts. In 1999, her parents organized buses to Washington D.C. and New York City where she participated in rallies, marches and also addressed large crowds in support of immigration reform.
Diana is a former director of “Espiritu de Mexico,” a local Mexican folk-dancing group in Yonkers, where she has taught dance to children, teenagers and adults for over 18 years. In 2016, she participated in a bi-national program by the US-Mexico Foundation. This organization gave her an opportunity to learn about Mexico’s economy and politics.
Diana is one of the founders and a community organizer at Yonkers Sanctuary Movement. She is a board member of the Hudson Valley Community Coalition and has completed a fellowship with United We Dream. These organizations focus on deportation defense and advocate for legislation that is critical to the welfare of the undocumented community.
Farmer, Organizer and Educator. Jalal was raised in Greenburgh, New York, by his mother and grandmother, and studied at Woodlands High School and SUNY Purchase. He organized his fellow university students to bring uneaten food to local shelters and food pantries; organized trips to distribute clothes and food to the homeless in NYC; and led the Black Student Union to address numerous racist incidents on campus.
As an organizer with WESPAC Foundation and the Malcolm X Grassroots Movement (MXGM), Jalal helped initiate food justice committees within both organizations. As part of Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, Jalal co-created Potential 2 Power Project in East New York, Brooklyn, which taught young people gardening, cooking and nutrition skills, as well as ‘know your rights’ during police encounters.
In 2011, Jalal began farming with Wassaic Community Farm – growing produce for farmers markets while running a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and gleaning project. Jalal co-founded the Freedom Food Alliance, VROOM Cooperative and Victory Bus Project. The Freedom Food Alliance is a collective of small rural and urban farmers, activists, artists, community folks and political prisoners who use food as an organizing tool. The Alliance founded the VROOM Cooperative and Victory Bus Project to connect urban and rural communities and to support families of prisoners by providing transportation (along with a box of farm-fresh food) for folks visiting prisoners in the Hudson Valley. Jalal is currently continuing the work of the Alliance, while also launching Sweet Freedom Farm in Germantown, NY, where he conducts farm education, a maple syrup operation, and helps to build the Farms Not Prisons movement.
Social Justice Reform Advocate. A dedicated community servant, Jonathan is a Social Justice Reform Advocate in the City of Yonkers. He’s a 32-year-old life-long Yonkers resident who promotes the philosophy that ‘change agents change narratives.’ After serving a thirteen year prison term, he returned home with a mission to give back to the same community he once negatively impacted. He is motivated by his transformative experiences within the criminal justice system. He went to prison at 17, with a tenth-grade education. During his incarceration, he acquired a GED and a Bachelor of Arts in Social Studies from the Bard Prison Initiative program. His educational journey and personal metamorphosis continue to motivate him to make productive contributions to society.
Today, Alvarez works to abolish systemic racism by passionately advocating for criminal justice reform. As a member of My Brother’s Keeper, he serves as a mentor and staff committee member, touring public schools to educate young men of color on the urban experience in contemporary America. Inspired to reach at-risk adolescents in the community, he co-founded and directs a youth mentorship organization called 914UNITED Inc. He currently facilitates his mentorship services in the Westchester County Department of Corrections (WDCOC). Valued as a “credible messenger” and Academic Outreach Coordinator in the Youth Offender Program, he provides counseling and educational support to 15 participants from the ages of 18 to 25. Finally, Jonathan is also a case manager for the Yonkers SNUG project, working to reduce gun violence by mediating conflicts and rendering social services to individuals who are at a high-risk of engaging in criminal activities.
Community Herbalist, Organizer, Earth Steward, and Storyteller. Mandana is an Iranian-American community herbalist, storyteller, gardener, and co-founder/educator at Wild Gather, Hudson Valley School of Herbal Studies. Mandana was raised in Newburgh, NY and continues to call the Mahicantuck (Hudson) Valley home. Her exploration of plant medicine and community care began in her childhood kitchen where she first heard stories of ancestors, as told to her by her mother, accompanied by the rhythm of the mortar and pestle.
Weaving her Iranian identity, culture, and plant tradition into all facets of her work as a community herbalist, Mandana is dedicated to re-centering the voices, stories, rituals, and histories of the BIPOC community, through organizing healing spaces and learning immersions. She finds her north star by supporting her community’s journey back to the land, empowering others in their re-connecting, re-membering, and re-claiming of intricate ancestral technologies. Through her shared wisdom and initiatives in the Mahicantuck Valley, she is helping her community gain access to equitable care, herbal medicine, and herbal education.
Farmer, Organizer and Educator. Ruby Olisemeka is an independent educator/consultant focused on socially transformative education; food justice; and the inclusion of African and indigenous practices in farming - as well as food and farming pedagogy. She began her farming career as an apprentice at Stone Barns (2011) and has since built numerous school and urban gardens in lower Westchester and Harlem. Ruby has over ten years’ experience educating children and young adults. She has worked as an educator at Edible Schoolyard NYC, Harlem Grown, as well as other institutions, including public and private schools. She is a facilitator with Farmschool NYC - an urban agriculture training program for adults.
She initiated and is a part of a grassroots community effort, "The Free Peoples Market,” whose mission is to bring local organically grown food to Mount Vernon residents at no or low cost (a “pay-what-you-can” model).
