Debra Richardson

With the background of a restaurateur, and an avid gardener, as well as a community organizer, Debra Richardson has been cultivating her skills and experiences in food activism for decades.

She is currently the Founder and Program Director of Leaf, Loaf & Ladle at the Resource Center for Independent Living (RCIL) where she helps individuals’ transition from recovery, re-entry, and youth-at-risk communities into the larger community through a food service-based job skills training program. She works professionally and through her service and volunteer activities as an advocate for good, clean and fair food as well as for home, school and community gardens- all efforts to make Utica and the Mohawk Valley an increasingly livable, healthy and sustainable City and region in Upstate New York.