Tom Spaulding is the founding executive director of Angelic Organics Learning Center. Tom is inspired by farms as dynamic places of cultural, ecological, and economic revitalization. Angelic Organics Learning Center helps urban and rural people build local food systems. The Learning Center, the nonprofit educational partner to the Angelic Organics Community Supported Agriculture Farm, reaches more than 4,000 people per year through five initiatives: farmer training, farms forever, urban (Chicago and Rockford), on-farm education, and civic engagement.

The Learning Center serves as the coordinating body for the Upper Midwest Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farmer Training, a coalition of more than 95 sustainable agriculture farmers dedicated to preparing the next generation of farmers. The Learning Center runs Stateline Farm Beginnings and serves on the leadership team for the national Farm Beginnings Collaborative (13 programs in nine states) and the international CRAFT (Collaborative Regional Alliance for Farm Training) in 22 states and provinces.

Tom serves on the Illinois Food, Farms, and Jobs Council, a body charged by the Illinois legislature to develop a local food and farm economy. He manages the Learning Center’s livestock (pastured cows, goats, pigs and chickens) and has assisted the Angelic Organics farm crew with everything from direct seeding and biodynamic sprays to cultivation and the soil fertility program. Prior to founding the Learning Center, Tom worked more than 15 years in international economic and social development and is a national Kellogg Fellow.

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