Sewall Foundation Welcomes Jonah Fertig-Burd

The Elmina B. Sewall Foundation (EBSF) is pleased to welcome Jonah Fertig-Burd to the staff team on August 31, 2020. As a Community Partner, Jonah will provide leadership for EBSF’s evolving work in food systems and nature-based education.

Over the past 18 years, Jonah has built deep, collaborative relationships; developed new nonprofits, cooperative businesses, and collaboratives; worked in restaurants, food pantries, and farms; advocated for food and farm policies; and helped to grow racial equity in our food system. He has been a critical thought partner, facilitator, collaborator, consultant, and mentor to people in Lewiston-Auburn, Portland, Washington and Oxford counties, and across the state.

In 2001, Jonah became involved in community organizing and started collective organizations that brought people together around food, shared resources, learning, and creative activism. This community-based work led him to organize the first meetings of the Portland Food Co-op in 2006 and then the next year to start Local Sprouts Cooperative, the first worker-owned, local, organic cafe and catering business in Maine. Through his work at Local Sprouts, he helped grow the local foods movement in Portland, collaborating with many partners to teach youth about cooking with local foods and to bring people together to increase support for local farmers, fishermen, and food producers.

During the past 5 years at the Cooperative Development Institute (CDI), Jonah shifted energy and focus to Lewiston-Auburn, supporting New American farmers, and growing a cooperative ecosystem. He helped start New Roots Cooperative Farm, Maine’s first New American owned co-op and Maine Farm & Sea Cooperative, the first multi-stakeholder foodservice co-op in the country. Jonah has consulted with co-ops in Maine and across the region, assisting them in developing democratic governance and management, business plans, raising funds, and more. Internally at CDI, he has been a leader in working towards diversity, equity, and inclusion, helping to create a committee focused on this work, working with diverse clients, hiring diverse staff, and working on internal education so that they can unpack their personal and organizational racism. While at CDI, Jonah has also updated their branding, developed videos about food systems, and managed their social media presence.

In addition to his work in Portland and Lewiston-Auburn, Jonah has built relationships with most of the cooperatives in Maine’s food system, many immigrant and refugee organizations, organizations in Washington County, and Wabanaki organizations. Politically, he has developed relationships with local, state, and federal officials and agencies. Regionally, he is deeply connected to Food Solutions Network, Northeast Farmers of Color Network and Land Trust, Cooperative Fund of New England, Farm to Institution New England, and others. He also brings national connections with Common Future, Democracy at Work Institute, US Federation of Worker Co-ops, and others.

Jonah is also a farmer and co-owner of Celebration Tree Farm & Wellness Center in Durham, Maine, where he lives with his wife and two children.

We are delighted to welcome Jonah to our team and look forward to working together to build a just, humane, and sustainable food system and expand equitable access to outdoor learning.