Everybody eats, but most of us are deeply disconnected from the source of our food and the people who grow it. In this keynote for Eat Local Week 2025, Community Harvest SRQ founder Don Hall and current Program Director Andrew Hudson will engage in a spirited dialogue about why cultivating regenerative local foodsheds is so important right now, how they each fell in love with our Sarasota-Bradenton foodshed, and what they envision for its future. Ask your questions, meet others interested in this topic, and find out how to get involved.

The two will begin by “catching up” on what has happened both locally and globally since Don left Transition Sarasota in 2016 to serve as Co-Director for Transition US. Over the past nine years, acceptance of the reality of climate change has become ubiquitous, but at the same time, many problems have deepened. It all points to the need for building local resilience.

Cost: $10. Pre-registration is requested, though tickets will be available at the door.

Don Hall is the founder of Evolutionary Change and author of The Regeneration Handbook: Transform Yourself to Transform the World (New Society Publishers, 2024).

Don is an internationally-recognized leader in the Transition Towns Movement, serving in several different capacities over the past 17 years: first as Education & Outreach Coordinator for Transition Colorado, then as founder and Executive Director of Transition Sarasota (Florida) and Executive Director of Transition US. He currently serves as Training Coordinator for Transition Network International.

Don also holds a Master’s in Environmental Leadership from Naropa University, a certification in Permaculture Design from the Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, and regularly teaches on a wide variety of topics including leadership development, community organizing, effective collaboration, and local food systems.

Andrew Hudson is Program Director for Community Harvest SRQ, a Mennonite minsiter and long-time leader in sustainable agriculture in Sarasota-Manatee and his native Portland, Oregon.