Hope Kelley

Senior Communications Manager

hope@bostonfoodforest.org

Hope leads BFFC’s outreach, coalition-wide communications, and general storytelling, while supporting development efforts and organizational growth. She brings a diverse set of skills to her work with BFFC, including a background in journalism, farming, education, and group facilitation.

Born in Massachusetts, Hope grew up with a love of the woods and swamps that bordered her childhood home, and the sandbars and wetlands beside her grandparents’ home on Lake Michigan. Thanks to these two places, she’s been a naturalist since her early years. She’s also been a writer since she could hold a pencil, so working with BFFC is a perfect blend of her two worlds.

While attending UMass Amherst’s Journalism school, Hope discovered farming. She worked at US Fish & Wildlife’s Hadley office as an environmental writer during the school year, and during summer breaks would travel to other parts of the country (and eventually the world) to learn about regenerative farming and permaculture from a variety of sources. Some of the places where she has farmed include Hawaii, New Zealand, British Columbia, Costa Rica, and of course, Massachusetts. Alongside this work, she has been an educator for over 10 years in camps, classrooms and farm fields.

Hope spends her free time making art, reading books, spending time with people she loves, and watching birds. She’s also an avid open-water swimmer and surfer.

Hope was a member of Food Solution New England’s 6th cohort of the Network Leadership Institute for 2022-2023, and continues to collaborate with FSNE’s communities of practice around collective narrative strategy in regional food systems work.