Community Food Systems Mentor Profile: Angel Mendez

I like to help everyone and am a strong believer of “not recreating the wheel.” I would love to work with organizations that are in or moving through the startup phase. I am specifically interested in supporting grass roots organizations that are working in underserved communities. I myself was raised in a vulnerable community and now live with a sense of urgency to share lessons learned and educate people in these communities; this work will feed my soul.  In addition, as a Latino that has grown up in this food movement, I had to learn how to navigate myself through my own mental models that led me to assumptions and created what I now call “artificial barriers” in my brain that seemed to slow down productivity and progress.  I am eager to share lessons learned from these experiences and help people of color create a navigation tool for getting through the mud.