It was an honor for Red Tomato to attend the Ashoka Changemakers event yesterday as a finalist, and even more of an honor to walk away as the winner for Massachusetts. We spent the afternoon and evening with an amazing group of nonprofit folks from all over the northeast, and heard from some seasoned veterans.

Judy Wicks,  founder of White Dog Café, spoke about her vision of real, community-based social change.  She noted there is no such thing as one sustainable business, it can only exist as part of a sustainable system, which requires working together.  She also spoke about her decision to pursue unconventional kinds of growth for her own business—growth in knowledge, community, and fun rather than growth in size and number of locations. Watch for her book, Good Morning, Beautiful Business, for more of her wisdom.

Willy Foote of Root Capital also spoke about the need to constantly look for ways to be part of a larger network of change. He had a great phrase– “pathological collaboration” – for something we do a lot of here at Red Tomato.

Oddly, after meeting and learning about the other 14 finalists, we almost wanted someone else to win.  Not that we don’t appreciate the $5000 and the recognition of our work—we do!  But the inspiring, dedicated work being done on the streets of New York and Boston, in schools, senior centers, and mobile health clinics is all so urgent, and so essential. It feels more like we were each doing our part, rather than competing. We hope to be able to share a video showcasing all of the finalists.

Thanks to Green Mountain Coffee for sponsoring the event and the competition, and HUGE thanks to all of you who voted for Red Tomato online and helped spread our story to a wider network.

Now, off to taste test some of the first tomatoes of the season—everything is early this year!

More about the author

Susan Futrell has been involved in food and sustainable agriculture endeavors for over 30 years. She spent 25 years in distribution, sales and marketing, most recently as Director of Marketing for Blooming Prairie Warehouse, a Midwest organic and natural foods wholesale cooperative. She’s a writer, and has an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. She is Communications Director for Red Tomato, and divides her time between Massachusetts and Iowa, where she lives with her husband, Will, two cats, and a tiny garden

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 3:53 pm and is filed under Red Tomato Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.