Gracie Novacek (They/She)
Director of Programs
Bio
Gracie currently serves as the Programs Director for Green City Market, after four years as GCM’s Programs Manager of Food Access. Gracie has spent her years at GCM pulling palette jacks, running Link transactions, juggling spreadsheets, and living with the seasons. During her time specializing in food access, she grew the GCM For All Link Matching program almost 700%.
Prior to joining GCM’s team, Gracie graduated from University of Washington with a Biology degree in 2018 and completed the Bonderman Fellowship abroad in 2019. Gracie has over a decade of nonprofit programming experience in food systems, prison abolition, and visual and literary arts. She was a member of the UW Student Food Coop and a volunteer at the UW Urban Farm, which is how she got into food systems work.
Gracie is also a writer, ceramicist, & a poet; her work is concerned primarily with grief and imagination, individual and collective. She has led poetry workshops at two previous Chicago Food Justice Summits on the intersection of climate grief, resilience, and fugitivity.
As Programs Director, Gracie brings her passion for food access & food justice to GCM’s leadership team. Grace is committed to creating equitable access to local, sustainably grown food and supporting community-driven efforts to attain food sovereignty.
