Career advice from a food systems program officer

Last month, the fourth edition of the World Food Forum in Rome saw world leaders call for agrifood system reforms to foster resilience against economic and climate challenges. Amid this push for reform, a new generation of food systems planners is emerging to help shape policies and practices that address hunger, economic inequality, health, and environmental issues more comprehensively. Food systems planners take a broad view of how these issues are interconnected with how we produce, process, and consume food. And so they work on diverse projects — from improving food distribution networks and ensuring equitable food access to reducing food waste. Devex recently spoke with one such professional: Alexandra Payne, a program officer at The Rockefeller Foundation. Payne shared insights into her role at The Rockefeller Foundation and the varied experiences, roles, and skills that have shaped her system-thinking approach and focus on community cohesion. Ultimately, she reminded us of the connective power of food in bringing people together. “Food work can often become overly technical, philosophical, or strategic, but it’s important to remember that food can also be about joy — about savoring something delicious, connecting with friends, family, or even colleagues over a meal.” This conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Can you tell me about the work you do at The Rockefeller Foundation? I’m a program officer within our food initiative, so I work on grantmaking and strategy across a few of our sub-portfolios. Mostly I focus on two areas in our U.S. portfolio: good food purchasing, which looks at how shifting the trillions of dollars spent by public institutions towards foods that are equitable, nutritious, and regenerative can drive public good. The second is our food is medicine which seeks to expand coverage of food-based interventions — such as produce prescriptions or medically tailored meals — by Medicaid and other payors so food can be prescribed to help prevent, treat, and manage illness in the same way as medicine, like insulin. My work focuses on where/who the food for these programs comes from and how these public dollars can drive better outcomes for local farmers and health for local constituents. Finally, I support our regenerative agriculture portfolio, which focuses on coalescing stakeholders around a common outcomes-based definition of regenerative and transitioning farming practices. We’re currently exploring how to increase the flow of regenerative foods into our global school meals work, which focuses on school feeding as a public safety net and a tool for achieving nutritional security. How did you end up in this type of work? This is my first time as a grantmaker and working for a large philanthropic foundation — I’ve been in this role for about three years — though my journey with food and food systems goes way back. Since I was a child, I had a deep love of food and cooking. My mom was a chef, so she introduced me to many foods — and to cooking — very early. My parents often host gatherings of diverse people, which was foundational in my view of how food could be used to bring people together. My mom’s family is also Lebanese, and like many Americans, we have ties to our ethnic backgrounds but don’t always feel deeply connected to them. For me, that connection to culture and heritage came through my mom’s cooking. For instance, she makes amazing baklava. I live in New York now, where I can access all kinds of baklava, and I always think, “It’s good, but I think my mom's better.” Another thing that drove my career was my exposure to issues of segregation in places like Milwaukee, where I grew up, and later in New Orleans, where I studied sociology at Tulane. These experiences were major drivers in pointing me to justice and equity work and understanding how food could be a tool for driving cohesion. After college, I moved to New York. I quickly realized that working at a nonprofit wouldn’t cover my student loans, so I went into marketing. That shift was helpful as I started viewing communities as ‘customers’ whose needs and lived experiences we should serve rather than passive recipients of programs. That really flowed through, even when I returned to school to study urban planning at the London School of Economics. When I returned to the U.S., I worked for about a decade in community development with Harlem Grown, Green Bronx Machine, GrowNYC, and Urban Agriculture Cooperative. My focus there was on moving from food access to food sovereignty and strengthening urban-rural linkages. I left that work to found a startup, TuckrBox, a kids’ farm-to-lunchbox delivery service. I’d love to hear more about the transition to joining Rockefeller. What was your thought process during that time, and what drew you to this role? While working on the ground in underresourced communities as a program and nonprofit director, I experienced the need for increased and more stable capacity support and a lack of understanding around how to unlock philanthropic relationships and, frankly, dollars. I was curious to understand how to drive more money into communities and how to build the power of those communities to have more decision-making capacity — ultimately leading me to Rockefeller. What does your day to day look like? Much of my role centers around grantmaking. This involves engaging with various stakeholders to understand their work and supporting them in developing proposals for us to collaborate on. It also involves landscaping the field and aligning with fellow funders to assess where we can partner to accelerate work. Some of the best parts of my work are when I get to spend time out in the field with grantees. It doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I get to connect with people in their environments. I see the real impact of their work. Food is the center of it all, and it’s grounding to witness how it impacts lives directly. What are some of the biggest hurdles in this field currently? There’s a real tension between governments and governance and what’s happening on the ground. For instance, global agendas like the Sustainable Development Goals often look at food systems from a top-down, national perspective, while frameworks like UN-Habitat focus on local and city levels but often leave out food. Relatedly, there’s a deep need to drive better connectivity across and between tiers of government — like between municipal and regional actors. The United Nations and other organizations are doing good work, but I think there’s a missing piece, which is more work on agrifood systems. We need strong urban-rural linkages, but too often, we fall into the dichotomy of rural areas feeding urban ones. We need to ask not only how food moves into cities but also how rural farmers and communities access the food and resources they need. What skill sets have you found most valuable working in food systems planning? My background in urban and regional planning really helped me think across the urban-rural spectrum and view food as a system. Having that supply chain perspective — understanding that food has its own infrastructure, as well as all the players supporting that — was helpful. The other things my background in community cohesion and marketing taught me were relationship building, collaborative philanthropy, and community-led granting. Are there any specific resources, certifications, training programs, or events that you would recommend? There are many academic and global events to get involved with food policy. In the U.S., several programs are noteworthy: The New School offers an evolving undergraduate food policy degree, and Columbia has a climate program led by Jessica Fanzo, connected to the Food Systems Dashboard. Wageningen University offers a food systems certificate course, and the University of Vermont provides a flexible agroecology certificate program. For advanced interests, MIT offers relevant courses on supply chains. Following global events is also key. Major ones include COPs, the U.N. General Assembly and Climate Week in New York, and the Committee on World Food Security. At the national level, institutions like USDA and the University of Michigan also host annual food systems conferences. Lastly, local events are also beneficial. For example, the New York City Food Policy Center at CUNY hosts a "Food Systems Breakfast" series with industry experts. What advice do you have for young professionals looking to contribute meaningfully to this field? First, start wherever you can. If you look at my background, I’ve done many different things, and there are many entry points into food systems. For those early in their careers, I found volunteering to be a really rewarding way to test out what might be interesting and build community. Second, find mentors with different experiences, especially those further along in their careers. I had fantastic mentors, like Nancy Holman, my dean at LSE, and Jessica Fanzo, who leads the Food for Humanity Initiative at the Columbia Climate School. Remember, people are weighed down by a million different things, so be persistent and be gentle. Ready to stand out from the crowd and get noticed by the recruiters who matter most? Update your Devex profile and start connecting with top global development recruiters now.