Schedule & Program
9-10am
Check-in, Breakfast, Mingling
Check in, make your name tag, and enjoy a light breakfast on us! See the local vendors serving up delicious items in the morning.
10am-12pm
Poetry
Opening Speaker
Dr. Ashanté Reese | Anthropologist, Writer, and Food Scholar | Author of Gather: Black Food, Nourishment, and the Art of Togetherness (W.W. Norton, 2026)
Dr. Ashanté Reese is associate professor of African and African Diaspora Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Dr. Reese works at the intersection of critical food studies and Black geographies, examining the ways Black people produce and navigate food-related spaces despite anti-Blackness. Animated by the question, “who and what survives?”, much of Dr. Reese’s work has focused on the everyday strategies Black people employ while navigating inequity.
Learn more at amreese.com
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Dr. Larkin received her Bachelors of Arts degree in English and Doctorate in Educational Leadership from San Diego State University. She earned her teaching credential and Masters of Arts degree in Curriculum and Instruction from National University. She is also a National Board Certified Teacher in English Language Arts: Adolescence and Young Adulthood.
In 2013, Larkin obtained her Administrative Credential through SDSU/SDUSD Aspiring Administrators Program (Cohort III). Upon completion of the program, SDSU's Educational Leadership Department awarded Larkin the Learn, Lead, and Transform Outstanding Student Leadership Award. Larkin began her high school administrative career in January 2014, as a Vice Principal at Clairemont High School. In July 2017, Larkin, a devoted Tiger for Life, returned to Morse High School as principal.
Passionate about knowledge and growth, Larkin describes herself as a lifelong learner. As Morse's principal and instructional leader, Larkin believes that ALL students can thrive and achieve success, on an academic and personal level, both in and out of the classroom, when students are surrounded by nurturing and supportive stakeholders (educators, students, parents, and community members).
In her spare time, Larkin loves spending time with her family and friends; playing card and board games; and putting together jigsaw puzzles.
Diamond Brandon | Poet and Movement Builder
Diamond Brandon is a poet, movement builder, and cultural worker whose work lives at the intersection of storytelling, justice, faith, and healing. Writing since the fifth grade, she has long understood poetry as both refuge and resistance. A way to witness, process, tell the truth, and give language to the things we are often asked to carry quietly.
Learn more at DiamondBrandon.com
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Rooted in her lived experience as a Black woman, wife, mother, organizer, and community advocate, Diamond’s work explores grief and joy, struggle and possibility, love and collective survival. Beyond the stage, she serves as Director of Community Partnerships at the California Labor Federation and Chief Consultant for her family’s Black-owned S&S Friendly Ranch in San Diego.
Whether writing, organizing, or holding space, Diamond believes our stories can help us remember who we are, reclaim our power, and imagine what is possible.
Voices
Morning Program
Samuel M. Ciccati Performing Arts Center, Cuyamaca College
Join us for a morning reflection and dialogue on Nourishment, this year's theme for the Annual Gathering. As the world around us falls apart and we fight for our survival, what does it truly mean to nourish ourselves and one another? Speakers will share stories of life, love, and healing. They will weave threads that link food, connection, and community to nourishment and collective liberation.
Shantel Suárez Ávila | Founder and Principal Resource Strategist, Más Allá
Shantel Suárez Ávila, daughter of Mexican immigrants and a Chicago native turned Escondido resident, is the Founder and Principal Resource Strategist of Más Allá, a values-driven and community-centered fundraising practice advancing resource justice and equity. Through her work, Shantel partners with women, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, and grassroots communities to reimagine how resources are raised, shared, and moved into community.
Learn more at masallaconsulting.com
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A community organizer, Shantel is a co-founder and organizer with the San Diego Solidarity Network, former co-steward of the Community-Centric Fundraising San Diego Chapter, and currently serves on the Nominations Committee of the ACLU of San Diego & Imperial Counties and as a Council Member of the Community-Centric Fundraising North American Council.
Grounded in her heritage and guided by a belief in collective well-being, Shantel is passionate about changing how we understand resources—not simply as dollars to be raised, but as tools for building power, sustaining community, and creating more just and abundant futures.
Janice Luna Reynoso | Founder and Executive Director, Mundo Gardens
Janice Luna Reynoso is the Founder and Executive Director of Mundo Gardens. She grew up in National City, Southeast San Diego, and Baja California. She draws from her family’s Mexican and farmworker heritage, her connection to the land, culture, and indigenous history of the region. As part of her vision for a healthy, thriving community, Janice leads the Reconnecting Southeast San Diego & National City movement, a community-driven effort to transform decades of freeway infrastructure into green spaces, affordable housing, and climate resilience.
Learn more at reconnectsesdnc.com and @mundogardens
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“We are the future ancestors. I have deep reverence and great appreciation for the sacrifices my family has made and the awesome responsibility and joy I inherited. I will grow my work to leave things in a good way for the next generations.”
Jessica Marie Obaña, LCSW | Community Organizer, Social Worker, Doctoral Candidate
REE (she/her) is a second-generation Filipina community organizer, social worker, and doctoral candidate whose work lives at the intersection of mental health, culture, community care, and social justice. For more than two decades, she has dedicated her clinical and community work to advancing the rights and well-being of marginalized communities, centering culturally responsive healing, suicide prevention, collective care, and community power. Her practice is grounded in Liberation Health and draws upon storytelling, cultural wisdom, and lived experience as pathways toward individual and collective healing.
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REE believes radical love and community care are not separate from movements for justice—they are essential to sustaining them. She is the founder of emrg collaborative therapy and support services, inc., a culturally responsive mental health practice rooted in liberation, connection, and community. REE is also a Doctoral Candidate in the Doctorate of Social Work program at Simmons University. Above all, REE loves being a mom, and she finds nourishment and joy in family and community, lowriding and classic cars, and training jiu-jitsu.
Shannon Magee | Certified Herbalist, Birth Doula, and Lactation Educator
Shannon Magee (Luiseno/Cahuilla) is an enrolled Tribal member of the Pala Band of Mission Indians. She enjoys working on projects that support Indigenous youth, family and maternal health,Traditional Ecological Knowledge, cultural preservation, and agricultural endeavors within Tribal communities.
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Shannon’s background includes collaborating with diverse partners on initiatives that are guided by Traditional Ecological Knowledge, organizing community workshops, and supporting grant-funded projects to advance Indigenous land stewardship. Her dedication to community health is further demonstrated through her work as a Birth Doula and Indigenous Birth Justice Advocate on the Yakama Nation, where she supported maternal and infant health initiatives.
As a certified Herbalist and native plant lover, Shannon’s work is deeply rooted in preserving traditional cultural practices, promoting Tribal self-reliance, and strengthening resilient communities.
Shannon currently lives with her three children on the Pala Reservation in San Diego County.
Dialogue Facilitator
Afternoon Chats
The Water Conservation Garden
Healing Our Waterways, Healing Ourselves: A Conversation on Water, Land, and Belonging in the Tijuana River Valley
Education Center — 1:30 to 2:30pm
The Tijuana River Valley is the largest coastal wetland in Southern California. For decades, we have destroyed lands, watersheds, and ecosystems in the name of population growth and human consumption. The crisis in the Tijuana River Valley is about more than climate change and poor infrastructure — it's a crisis rooted in disconnection. Join us for a conversation that will explore our relationship to watersheds, highlight the impact of the Tijuana River Valley crisis on local communities and farmers, and uplift stories for how to nourish the waterways that nourish us.
Voices
Bobby Wallace, Barona Band of Mission Indians
Robin Taylor, Sun Grown Organics & Co-Founder of Suzie's Farm
Sara Olache Gonzalez, Tijuana based advocate and activist
Waylon Matson, 4Walls International
Facilitator
Ramon Chairez, 4Walls International
Stories of nourishment: a conversation with those who grow, catch, and prepare the food we share
The Gazebo — 2:00 to 3:30pm
The people who nourish us—small farms, fisheries, and food businesses—are the lifeblood of every community. Their work is invisible, yet essential. We know that a diverse, resilient, and thriving local food system is not possible without them. Join us to learn more about the people who feed us, their work, their challenges, and their sources of nourishment. Together, we'll reflect on what it will take to build a more nourished, connected, and vibrant region.
Local farmers, fishermen, and food business owners work every day to nourish our communities. But who and what nourishes them? Join us for a collaborative, fishbowl-style* conversation exploring what drew them to this work, what sustains them through its hardest seasons, and what they need to thrive into the future. We'll dig into the real challenges facing food system workers, and the sources of resilience and community that keep them going. Together we'll listen, ask questions, and reflect on what it will take to build a stronger, more supportive local food system..
* This afternoon chat is set up in a circle format that leaves open seats for additional voices to join in. Farmers, fishermen, and food business owners in attendance are invited to take a seat at the table and join the conversation.
Voices
{in development}
Facilitators
Hanna Schuler and Connie Winterstein, San Diego Food System Alliance
Nourishing the Next Generation: A Space for Seeding Connections and Hope
Education Center — 3:00 to 4:00pm
The future of our food system is taking root in classrooms, school gardens, and the hands of youth learning to care for the land. Join us to explore how connection to food and land is shaping how young people understand themselves, their communities, and their future. This is a space for hope as much as strategy. Come ready to listen, reflect, and consider the role each of us plays in nourishing those who will carry this work forward.
Voices
Amanda Subish and Adam Uribe, Pauma School
Janelle Manzano, SDUSD
Christina Abuelo, Barrio Botany
Facilitator
Jeni Barajas, Olivewood Gardens & Learning Center
12-2pm
Afternoon Activities
The Water Conservation Garden
Community Hall
12:30 to 4:00pm | Main Plaza
The Community Hall is the heart of the Annual Gathering, a place to slow down, explore, and connect with the people and organizations nourishing our region every day. Wander through the Community Hall, learn about work happening across San Diego’s food system, and stop for hands-on activities, conversation, and a little joy. Nourishment doesn’t happen alone. It grows through relationships, shared knowledge, and care. We invite you to take your time, ask questions, and make new connections. You never know what might take root!
Seeds of Nourishment: What Nourishes Us, What Connects Us, What Can We Grow Together?
12:30 to 4:00pm | Location TBD
Interactive activity in partnership with UC Cooperative Extension San Diego County
A nourished food system isn’t something any one of us can grow alone. It grows through what we plant, tend, share, and imagine together. Our movement is more than what we can see above ground, it’s the relationships, knowledge, culture, resources, and connections beneath that root us.
Seeds of Connection is an interactive art activity we will grow together throughout the gathering. As attendees share the connections they've made, the people and practices that nourish them, and the futures they hope to grow, our roots and connections will take shape.
By the end of the day, the space will hold a collective portrait of who we are, what sustains us, and what we're building together. It's a reminder and reflection of the community we have cultivated together.
Stop by to contribute and watch our collective ecosystem take shape!
Live Screenprinting
1:00 to 3:30pm | The House
In partnership with Sour Soup Society
“What do we carry with us, and what can we give new life?”
Join Sour Soup Society for a live screen-printing experience rooted in creativity, reuse, and collective imagination. Sour Soup Society is a multidisciplinary design and curatorial collective whose work uses silkscreen and art as tools for imagining new possibilities. Enjoy the custom Annual Gathering design and leave with a small reminder of what nourishes us and what we create together.
Bring a t-shirt, tote bag, bandana, or another piece of fabric to print on. Well-loved and upcycled items are encouraged.
Learn more and follow their work @soursoupsociety
Cultural Food Demos
1:30 to 4:00pm | Mini Amphitheater
In partnership with Berry Good Food Foundation
Join us for live cultural food demos as local community organizations share traditional recipes and stories of nourishment. From Burmese fermented tea salad to East African Sambusas, each demo celebrates the flavors and heritage that make San Diego's communities so vibrant. Stop by to meet the presenters, taste their traditional dishes, and discover the meaningful work each organization provides our communities.
12-4pm
Post-Event Mixer
4:00 to 5:00pm | Amphitheater
In partnership with B Local San Diego and Business for Good San Diego
Close out the day in community at the post-event mixer! Enjoy appetizers featuring local fish, alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages, and live music. This is your space to make connections, celebrate our collective work, and dance the night away.
P.S. We will be raffling off goodies from some of San Diego’s purpose driven businesses!
Live music provided by Giovanni Mejia @tiogiomusic
Food generously donated by Super Cocina @supercocina
Beverages generously donated by @athelticbrewingco @boochcraft @o’neillvinters&distillery