Leader: Tim Magner
Tim is a student of the food system, through books, lectures and first-hand experience with experts. He founded and directed the Truck Farm Chicago project. The farm-on-wheels delivered food and wellness programming to more than 10,000 students over the last three years. Prior to Truck Farm, Tim wrote books that connected kids to nature. Over the last six years, Tim has spent time in more than 150 different schools. He’s also visited and worked on several midwest farms, learning the business of growing and selling food. Tim’s a Chicago area native, but spent a decade or so after school working across the country, including Massachusetts, Colorado, New York, and Minnesota. He’s currently developing a forum to help make the complex understandable. More information is available on the websites:
http://www.greensugarpress.com, http://www.truckfarmchicago.org, and http://www.whatthehellsgoingon.com

CO-Leader: Debbie Hillman
Debbie facilitates action learning for any group of adults who want to be food-and-farm citizens -- to build regional food and farm economies and re-design governments to be more responsive to everyone's food-and-farm needs. Action learning includes a combination of earth knowledge, policy development, civic engagement, strategic partnerships, and spiritual development.  

Debbie is an Illinois native and has lived in Evanston, IL since 1976, where she was a professional gardener for 25 years (plus editor and cabinet-maker).   In 2005, she co-founded the Evanston Food Council, which led to landmark state legislation (Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Act, 2007), a food plan for Illinois (Local Food, Farms, and Jobs: Growing the Illinois Economy, 2009), and the creation of a permanent state food council (Illinois Local Food, Farms, and Jobs Council).  Debbie's food system activities have included county and regional food plans, founding member of The Talking Farm (an urban farm), founding partner of a high school working farm, farmers market support groups, and a statewide farm-to-school survey (with Northwestern University). 

In 2012, Debbie's national election survey (Food Vote 2012) identified major ignorance by candidates of food-and-farm issues and major ignorance among food-and-farm advocates of government processes. http://dhillmanstrategies.com/d-hillman-strategies/blog/page/7/
Her 2014 national election project -- Food, Farms, and Democracy -- hopes to empower constituents to make every Congressional candidate (U.S. House of Representatives) a food-and-farm candidate. http://dhillmanstrategies.com/d-hillman-strategies/blog/