2024 ReFED Food Waste Solutions Summit

Sophia Lenarz-Coy is the Executive Director of The Food Group.  She loves her job as it gives her the ability to think creatively, collaborate with amazing community partners, and bring good, culturally connected food where it’s needed most.  The food system is complex and interconnected but making it more equitable is possible.  That possibility is what brings Sophia to work each day. She has worked in hunger relief her entire career, having re-joined The Food Group as director of programs and operations in 2018. In that role, she embedded equity and systems change, created new strategies for community engagement, and clarified long-term organizational outcomes.  Prior to that, she served as associate director at Hunger Solutions Minnesota, where she worked on federal and state public policy and expanded cross-sector partnerships with healthcare, policy makers, and farmers markets. She also served as a leader for The Food Group’s programs team from 2008 to 2015. Her passion is to work collaboratively to create a more just, equitable food system for all.  Sophia is a graduate of Smith College and lives in Minneapolis with her husband, twin boys and evil black cat.  Her favorite food is pizza, although let’s be honest, it’s hard to pick just one thing!