By Rosa Bordallo, NFFC Communications Associate

On July 22-24, NFFC board members and staff came together for our coalition’s annual board meeting. Held every summer, the gathering changes location so that members get a chance to visit the home base of a member and learn more about their work. This year’s gathering was hosted in Billings, MT, near the headquarters of one of our longest-running members, Northern Plains Resource Council (NPRC). As one member shared in a post-gathering survey, Montana was an ideal meeting point because it gave people a good idea about “what we have to deal with out in the West. It’s easy to get in a bubble on the East Coast because in a lot of cases you deal with friendly legislative offices and have supporters in urban areas for what you do.”

For decades the grassroots organizers of Northern Plains have promoted sustainable farm and ranch practices and have fought to protect the air, water, and landscapes for the next generation of Montanans. Northern Plains members Dena Hoff (farmer, activist, and NFFC Executive Committee member) and Scott Sweeney (rancher and NFFC member representative) attended as official NPRC representatives and graciously welcomed us to Billings.

Attendees of the Annual Gathering for National Family Farm Coalition. NFFC board members and staff met in Billings, MT, in July 2025.

The gathering in Billings included a mix of first-time and long-time attendees from all over the country – from as far north as North Dakota and Maine, and from as far south as Florida and Puerto Rico. In a casual show of hands, the majority of attendees considered themselves farmers or land stewards, and a large number also related to the role of organizer. As advocates for the people who grow food and steward our lands and waters, our members are equally invested in the health and vibrancy of the rural regions from which we hail.

NFFC members visited Steve Charter’s ranch outside Billings.

On our first day, our group took a field trip to the land of third-generation beef rancher Steve Charter, who is also a founding member of Northern Plains. That day, in collaboration with local conservation groups, Northern Plains was hosting volunteers to assist with biomimicry – a low-tech form of regenerative agriculture that would help restore the ecosystem and reverse desertification from centuries of overgrazing. To deepen our connections with local heritage, we heard from Tom Mexicancheyenne on the second day of our gathering. Tom is a Northern Cheyenne tribal member who previously sat on the board of Northern Plains. It was moving and inspiring to hear Tom’s personal stories and organizing successes, and to learn about the Northern Cheyenne people’s connection to the surrounding landscape and resources.

Niaz Dorry, Steve Charter, and John Brown at Steve’s ranch north of Billings.

We spent a wonderful final evening together at a community dinner hosted by Northern Plains at their office in downtown Billings, enjoying delicious food sourced from local producers (including Steve Charter’s beef!). NFFC members and staff mingled with Northern Plains members and staff, further enhancing the connectivity of our coalition.

While a major touchpoint for our members to connect – and to dole out our annual Farmy Awards! –  the summer gathering is also a time for official business and strategic planning.  Our board reviewed our internal health, updates from staff, and elected new members and officers of the Executive Committee. There was encouragement for newer members to become officers, with longer-serving members graciously offering their guidance and support.

Jordan Treakle, presented the new Strategic Plan to members.

The top achievement of our time together was the adoption of our new Strategic Plan! As a statement of our shared priorities and goals, the Strategic Plan is a touchstone that we return to often to ensure that our people-powered movement is operating as intended. Over the past year and a half, the Strategic Planning Committee surveyed board members and staff to identify the adaptations needed for our work moving forward. They led a discovery process to consider how NFFC can show up in movement spaces as a unique coalition of independent growers and advocates who seek fairness and dignity for all who participate in our food system. As one attendee shared in a feedback survey, “Finalizing the strategic plan is a great step in clarifying the direction of NFFC, and therefore how our members can plug into the work.”

We evaluated the priorities that had guided our coalition since 2018 when our first Strategic Plan was drafted, after the untimely passing of NFFC’s long-time director Kathy Ozer. A major takeaway from this recent strategic planning process was that our 2018 plan was largely a success, and so we were encouraged to continue pursuing the policies and programs that advance our priorities. As a refreshed version of our previous plan, it clarifies our vision and strategy at a time of growing momentum. Armed with this blueprint, staff and members can move confidently toward a collective ‘true north’ – we can expand and build upon our work without compromising organizational health and stability.

Northern Plains members Scott Sweeney and Dena Hoff were honored with a Farmy Award, presented by NFFC Board Clerk, Meg Eisen-Vos of Dakota Rural Action (center).

Our organization’s growth also underlines an important moment in our history:  we will soon sunset the shared leadership model we’ve been operating under with North American Marine Alliance (NAMA) since 2018. Under this model, NFFC and NAMA have acted as sister organizations guided by Niaz Dorry as Executive Director/Coordinating Director. Both organizations remained legally separate and maintained their own missions, values, strategic plans, and board of directors, while sharing leadership, staff and resources that synergized finance, administration, human resources and logistics. 

At the close of this year, Niaz will step down as NFFC’s Executive Director to focus solely on her role as Coordinating Director at NAMA. NFFC has begun a thoughtful process to find a new Executive Director – we will have more information to share in the coming months about next steps.

Maggie Gordon and Meg Stratton at a community dinner hosted by Northern Plains.

As a relatively new staff hire who was attending the summer gathering for the first time, I was warmed by the camaraderie and goodwill that colored all our time together. It felt like a soft landing amidst a rough and turbulent year for our democracy. The planning committee selected Hope as the theme for this year’s gathering. Sharing our hopes and dreams with each other was a necessary step to alchemize the heaviness that can come with social movement work – which, ironically, often feels like it’s happening in isolation.

In what was perhaps the surest sign of hope at our gathering, there was a moment on our first evening together that could not have been more poignant. We had gathered for a dinner reception on the top floor of a hotel in the center of Billings. The forecast predicted lots of rain, and looking out from the floor-to-ceiling windows, one could only see dark clouds on the horizon. But in a moment of levity, the clouds broke and a ray of light intervened. Jeremy, our facilitator, was the first to see it. A rainbow had formed just outside our windows. On closer inspection, it was a double rainbow, right above the city of Billings! It was a fitting metaphor for our diverse, indomitable, and defiantly optimistic movement.

Members admired a double rainbow that appeared outside our opening dinner reception.

Photo credits: ranch, conference room, and rainbow, photographed by Debbie Slobe/Resource Media; remaining photos, courtesy NFFC.