A Farewell from our Director
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Dear Friends,
As I approach my last day of work at Our Village Gardens (February 15th) I am filled with so many emotions.
When I look around at who is here today - my coworkers, our Board of Directors, Community Leaders, our partners, donors, and friends…I want to shout “we did it, we’re doing it, we’re going to keep at it”. I am so grateful to be able to close my personal chapter knowing that our organizational story has so many more chapters to come. And I can’t wait to witness and cheer and support from the sidelines. I hope you will too!
Our Village Gardens is in good hands. Our values, our programs, our health as an organization is held with care by our Board and Staff. We do the work every day to orient and re-orient towards our community, towards equity, and towards a way of being that centers relationship.
It has been incredible and so affirming to watch the Board and Staff work together to formulate such a thoughtful and inclusive process for hiring the new Executive Director to support our next chapter as an organization. We have come together to build trust, understand the different and complementary roles of Board and Staff, identify what we need in new leadership, and name what we can do as a community to support a new leader. We also came to consensus on a new and exciting Executive Leadership structure. After first hiring our Executive Director, we will then create and hire 2 Associate Director roles. This three person Executive Leadership structure gives us so much more capacity to build our base of support and organize for food justice and economic resilience within our own community. In our current phase, the Recruitment Action Committee (made up of 4 Board Members and 4 Staff) are working closely with two consultants (Kathy Kniep and Kathleen Holt) to prepare and post the Executive Director position. It's coming soon! In parallel, Lee Melaugh, who has been with us for almost 7 years, is stepping in as Interim Director and will help to provide stability and consistency during this transition.
As for me, I leave Our Village Gardens with so much gratitude and pride. So much thanks to folks who welcomed me into this community seven years ago and affirmed that I had a place to belong. So much appreciation for all the leaders since 2001 who dreamed and worked this organization into being. Thank you for trusting me to steward this organization through some hard and bold changes. Today I stand alongside our Board, Staff, and Community Leaders with a sense of collective pride. This is what it looks like to build programs that ensure we all have access to good food and jobs that sustain us. This is what it feels like when the work we do is rooted in relationship and care. Indeed..we have done so much good work together over these years. And there is so much more to come.
Here’s to growing, sharing, learning, and building together towards a nourished and thriving Village.
With warmth,
Kris Soebroto
