Valerie Peter Chong
they/Val/Pete
Valerie Peter Chong is a passionate food justice advocate who specializes in youth and community engagement. Formerly the CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute’s CUNY Food Justice Leadership Fellowship Coordinator, Val now lends their expertise to the Healthy CUNY Advocates program which seeks to train and guide student peer advocates to make a change on their campuses. Together alongside Healthy CUNY and Swipe Out Hunger, this program spreads awareness for food and other essential needs insecurity across CUNY campuses and connects students to vital resources. Pete is also a proud student of Farm School NYC’s 2021-22 cohort.
Alec Chi
he/him/his
Alec was born and raised in Houston, Texas, and moved to Flatbush in 2018 to study nutrition at Brooklyn College. He joined CFAC through the CUNY Food Justice Leadership Fellowship. Prior to that, he was cooking in restaurants and apprenticing at organic farms. Alec’s love for food has brought him from the foodservice industry to farms to East New York Farms where he is currently assisting with community organizing and strengthening their autonomy with growing food through restorative and regenerative agriculture.
Cara Conaboy
she/her/hers
Cara holds a BS in Food and Nutrition Science from Brooklyn College. She has ten years of experience as a professional chef and is extremely passionate about food. While completing her undergraduate program she gained experience in nutrition education, urban farming, research, and advocacy. As part of the Food Security Advocates program with Healthy CUNY and CUNY Urban Food Policy Institute, she developed an outreach campaign working to connect with student groups and faculty to share food resources and facilitate SNAP enrollment for Brooklyn College students. She is expecting to begin a dietetic internship in Fall 2022 as a next step in becoming a registered dietitian. As a future dietitian, she plans to utilize her experience to promote food justice, accessibility, nutrition education, and community health.
Anna Compton
she/her/hers
Anna Compton holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Hunter College.
Anna first got involved in food advocacy and Justice during the 2019 Fall semester when she learned about the alarming percentages of CUNY students experiencing food and housing insecurity. During her first semester at Hunter, she interned for the New York Public Interest Group (NYPIRG) as a Hunger and Homelessness Campaign Leader. With her fellow interns, she pushed for a food pantry on Hunter’s main campus. Anna met with Hunter admin, petitioned, and organized with her fellow students to ensure that the food pantry would happen.
When New York City entered the beginning of its lockdown in March 2020, Anna continued to advocate for food and housing as well as mental health expansion and support for CUNY students. She spoke on panels and met with student organizers to find ways to support students remotely during a very trying time and continued to reiterate the importance of expanded funding and resources for students across the city.
In the Fall 2020 semester, Anna began her work with Young Invincibles as a Young Advocate. She had the honor of co-leading the Basic Needs Group which advocated heavily for food and housing expansion as well as mental health. Through YI, Anna was able to speak on panels, testify to elected officials, and begin the groundwork for the Basic Needs Group with her fellow advocates.
In the 2021 Spring semester, Anna returned to YI as an Ambassador and was able to support the new cohort of Advocates as they continued to grow and expand the Basic Needs work. As an ambassador, she was able to see the growth and progress of this campaign and knows it will only continue to grow bigger and stronger each year with new cohorts.
In Fall 2021, Anna interned with NYPIRG for a second time, continuing to work with the hunger and homelessness campaign, while also becoming involved with the Higher Education Campaign which is currently pushing for the NewDeal4 CUNY which is fighting to get CUNY back to being tuition-free and to mitigate campus issues all the way from broken escalators to expanding the number of mental health counselors on campus.
In the Summer of 2021, she began her work here as a CFAC member through Healthy CUNY and is so grateful to still be working with them to carry out their mission and the mutual goal of food Justice. She is excited to continue this work with CFAC!