Announcing Our 2026 Keynote Speaker for the 21st Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit
Every year, the Chicago Food Justice Summit brings together organizers, advocates, growers, policymakers, and community members who are pushing for a food system rooted in dignity, equity, and care. As we prepare for the 21st Annual Food Justice Summit, happening March 11–13, 2026, we’re excited to share what’s ahead and to announce a keynote speaker whose work truly embodies the spirit of this gathering.
Welcome Our Keynote Speaker: Vivi Moreno
We are honored to announce Vivi Moreno as the keynote speaker for the 21st Annual Chicago Food Justice Summit.
Vivi Moreno is a Senior Food Justice Organizer with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) and a longtime leader in community-driven food and environmental justice work. She is the co-founder of La Villita Farm, located in La Villita Park, a former Superfund site transformed into a thriving community space after 15 years of organizing led by residents.
Vivi has created and facilitated food justice programs for youth, stewarded the Semillas de Justicia Community Garden alongside 40 immigrant families, and helped lead the annual distribution of thousands of pounds of fresh produce through La Villita Farm. This work has been nationally recognized, including the 2023 Force of Nature Award from the Chicago Wilderness Alliance and the 2024 Domestic Food Sovereignty Prize from the U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance.
She was also a founding co-owner of Catatumbo Cooperative Farm, a worker-owned, immigrant- and LGBTQ-led farm on Chicago’s South Side that grew culturally rooted Mesoamerican and South American crops for the region. Today, Vivi continues to advocate for Spanish-language agricultural education, is working toward becoming a Master Naturalist, and enjoys birding with her family.
“In these moments, we need to visibly recognize, fight for, and honor the people that are the backbone of our food chain and whose knowledge has been key to diversifying and sustaining the way we produce, process, and consume food in this country.”
Her leadership, lived experience, and deep commitment to land, people, and culture make her voice especially powerful at this moment
What to Expect at the 21st Annual Food Justice Summit
This year’s summit will once again offer multiple learning tracks designed to meet people where they are and deepen collective impact. Across three days, participants can expect sessions that explore community-led solutions, food and land sovereignty, policy and systems change, labor and worker justice, and storytelling as a tool for movement building.
Whether you’re new to food justice work or have been organizing for decades, the summit creates space to learn, reflect, and build together.
We can’t wait to welcome you this March and to learn alongside Vivi Moreno as we continue imagining and building a just food system for all.