Healthy Food for All
HFFA
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HFFA
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OUR TEAM

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Aaron Cutler

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HFFA Driver
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Alex Watring

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Distribution Coordinator

A lifelong Madison resident, Alex was a wrestler at La Follette High before continuing his studies in Forestry. An accomplished clarinetist and avid fisherman, Alex brings his many skills and talents together in service to  the community. While he manages much of the nitty gritty of moving food around, he’s also central to HFFA’s planning and campaign development.

During the growing season, Alex leads  HFFA’s complex and growing fresh produce collections and distribution services. He’s a regular at the Dane County and Eastside Farmers’ Markets collecting produce donations from shoppers and farmers alike. He’s also well known Countywide for his service to community partners including Crossroads Community Farm, Madison Area Food Pantry Gardens, Gorman Community Farm and many others.

All year round, Alex also plays a critical role in managing surplus food generated through other parts of HFFA’s operations. He’s a dedicated member of our Retail Gleaning Network collecting  grocery surplus and also regularly serves Monona Terrace Convention Center as part out our Green Catering Initiative. In addition, Alex also leads our UW campus effort to build a UW Food and Climate Justice coalition.

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Frankie Pobar Lay

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HFFA Coordinator

Frankie has worked for the Northside Planning Council in various capacities since graduating from UW-Madison in 2018. He is the volunteer coordinator for the HFFA Retail Gleaners Project and the go-to contact for food donations and distribution to our network of community partners.

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Joe Mingle

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HFFA Field Organizer
Joe has 40 plus years of grassroots community organizing experience in neighborhoods and communities across Dane County. He uses old school scientific methods to test out ideas in practice to guide the work and help inform other movement leaders. With a career long focus on serving low-income communities of color, Joe has dense networks of friends and community partners in most all the neighborhoods we serve.
Prior to founding HFFA with Chris in 2015, Joe led many urban ag efforts providing food to neighbors including the Darbo Pantry Garden, the Dane County Pantry Brigade and many other pantry and school garden projects. As vice-Chair of the Dane County Food Council in 2013, he helped convert the 294 acre Silverwood Farm into a County park with land available to new farmers and a youth education center in the restored farmhouse. In collaboration with the Edgerton High School Future Farmers of America, the Dane County Pantry Brigade produced many tons of produce at Silverwood for needy families.
Joe has led numerous novel, sometimes unique, projects specifically created to boost local farmers’ revenue. The short lived Four Lakes Processing Collective was a bold attempt to help farmers process surplus into value added products which collapsed after the first season under the weight of overwhelming demand. He also leads related projects described above including Purpose Grown, Buy One For A Neighbor, local food purchasing and market gleaning efforts. As field organizer, Joe is in regular and on-going contact with many local farmers and other producers in addition to the neighbors in Madison and other communities we serve.
Chris Brockel
Chris Brockel

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HFFA Coordinator

Project Coordinator Chris Brockel is a long time food movement activist with an interest in food justice and equitable access to healthy foods. Chris is currently the Operations Coordinator for FEED Kitchens on Madison’s Northside and a member of the City of Madison’s Food Policy Council. He is the former Executive Director of FairShare CSA Coalition and Food and Gardens Division Manager at Community Action Coalition for South Central Wisconsin (CAC). While at CAC he led the Healthy Food for All Delegation working with United Way of Dane County and the Goodman Foundation in writing a ten year plan to increase access to healthy food choices for low income families in Dane County. Chris has received the Hunger Hero Award from the Wisconsin Food Security Consortium, a public health award from Madison Dane County Public Health, and was designated as a food system innovator by Madison Magazine.