Posted by R.K. Gella
The Fair Food Foundation, an organization dedicated to improving the development of urban agriculture will be shutting down operations next month. The foundation was crippled under the allegations that Bernie Madoff, a prominent investment manager in charge of handling the organizations funds had defrauded $50 billion from investors.
On the foundation’s website, CEO Oran B. Hesterman offered these statements:
Due to the loss of funding, Fair Food Foundation is no longer in a position to consider any requests for funding. We will be spending the next few weeks closing down our operation.
The loss of the Fair Food Foundation and the potential financial support it would have provided is a stinging blow to the community of activists, advocates, organizers, and funders dedicated to redesigning our broken food system. I am heartened by the strong support that has rallied around the vision of a food system that creates health for our children, our communities and our environment.
The Fair Food Foundation came together in 2007, propelled by Oran B. Hesterman who previously headed the Kellogg Foundation.
The loss of the foundation, based in San Francisco and Detroit, leaves a gaping void to fill in the advancement of sustainable agriculture.