The Wallace Center has been a leader in the development of healthy regional farming and food systems since 1983. We serve the growing community of organizations, businesses, and public agencies involved in building a good farming and food system in the United States. Our program work focuses on advancing collaborative, regional efforts to grow and move good food – food that is healthy, regeneratively produced, and recognizes and builds value across the entire supply chain, from producers to farm workers, aggregators, processors, distributors, buyers, and the community based organizations supporting the food ecosystem.
The Wallace Center is a part of Winrock International, a nonprofit organization that works with communities in the United States and around the world to empower the disadvantaged, increase economic opportunity, and sustain natural resources. Winrock matches innovative approaches in agriculture, natural resources management, clean energy, and leadership development with the unique needs of its partners.
We commit to centering anti-racism, racial equity, and inclusion in our programs, operations, and culture. Indigenous, Black, and Brown communities have been violently displaced, enslaved, and disenfranchised to build the foundation of modern farming, fishing, and food systems. Many of these same communities continue to face interpersonal and systemic discrimination resulting in cycles of land loss, exclusion and economic and health disparities.
We recognize that by not being explicitly anti-racist in our approach over the past 35 years, our complacency has reinforced racism and racial inequity. As an organization striving to enact systems change, we recognize the role that race and racism play in the modern food system and are therefore making a public commitment to dismantling racism through our work.
The Wallace Center works on a variety of regional and national initiatives with countless partners and collaborators from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Our work is guided by seven overarching strategies that are informed by our values, our commitment to racial equity and the leadership of our predecessors, peers, and emerging leaders.