Employee Spotlight: Mara Momenee Finds Her Place in Toledo’s Growing Food Movement

After finishing grad school out West, Mara Momenee had already decided to move back to Toledo, job or no job. Then, just as she was preparing for the cross country drive, the call came from the City offering her the brand new position of Food Policy Manager.

“The timing was surreal. It felt like the universe was telling me I was supposed to be here,” Momenee said.

Now, just months into her new role, Momenee is shaping the future of food access in Toledo, one seed, policy, and partnership at a time.Her work covers the entire food system, from helping farmers plant seeds to ensuring people can access the food they need for a healthy life.

This includes designing policies and programs that support growing, processing, distributing, and reaching more healthy and culturally relevant foods. It also involves addressing transportation, nutrition education, and financial barriers to buying food. Beyond that, she focuses on how food is disposed of and explores ways to rescue quality food that might otherwise be wasted.

“This role brings together everything I care about, community development, food, sustainability, planning,” she said.

Raised in South Toledo, Momenee attended Arlington, Byrnedale and Bowsher. Her passion for food justice was sparked early, rooted in family gardening traditions and nurtured by her grandmother, a former home economics teacher and MSU Extension educator.

She credits a high school English teacher, Mrs. Harrison, for guiding her toward research on food deserts and historical housing policies that continue to shape access to healthy food. “That senior project changed everything,” Momenee said. “I saw how history and policy created the landscape we live in today, and I wanted to be part of changing it.”

Momenee studied sustainable community development and urban planning at The Ohio State University, where she joined student efforts to reform food purchasing policies. She later earned her master’s degree in Planning and worked on farms in Columbus, including Franklinton Farms, where she helped harvest vegetables and deliver them to neighbors and local hospitals.

“Living and working in community around food is powerful,” she said. “I have seen firsthand how local production and thoughtful distribution can feed people in real ways.”

Back in Toledo, Momenee’s position is part of a growing national trend of cities taking on a more active role in solving food related challenges, such as food deserts and health inequities. In her first months on the job, she has already introduced policies like dollar store spacing requirements and joined a national food policy audit cohort through the North American Food Systems Network.

“Toledo was one of just 12 communities selected for the cohort,” she said. “It is a great opportunity to assess where we stand and where we can improve.”

The audit uses the Community Agriculture Resilience Audit Tool (CARAT) to evaluate food system health across seven areas, including equity and natural resource management. Momenee is working with colleagues and hopes to partner with Reinvest Toledo to add a community engagement component to the project later this year.

“My goal is to make sure our work is grounded in what people here actually need and want,” she said. “We have to listen.”

That mindset carries into her partnerships. One of her early collaborators is Dr. Carla Pattin, known in the Junction community as “The Harvest Doctor.” Together, they are exploring ways to expand home gardening by installing raised beds that are accessible and space conscious.

“Dr. Carla’s work is inspiring,” Momenee said. “We want to help more people grow their own food in a way that fits their lives.” She is also working alongside City colleagues like Dr. Stephanie Covington, Commissioner of Educational Engagement and Workforce Development.

“Stephanie has been a guiding light,” she said. “We are dreaming up projects that connect youth with food and entrepreneurship, and hopefully tying in local resources like the Northwest Ohio Cooperative Kitchen. She is doing the kind of collaborative, community centered work I admire.”

While Momenee’s position is based in Toledo, her vision stretches beyond city borders. She draws inspiration from national leaders like Julia Freedgood at the American Farmland Trust and works with groups like TMACOG and the Black Swamp Conservancy to think regionally about the food economy.

“The food system does not stop at city limits,” she said. “If we want meaningful change, we need to collaborate across geography and expertise.”

Momenee also serves on the steering committee for the Ohio Food Policy Network, chaired by Council Member Brittany Jones. The group connects people across the state working toward better food access.

“It is great to have a council member leading that space,” she said. “There is real momentum behind this work, and Toledo is becoming part of a larger conversation.”

Looking ahead, Momenee is focused on completing the food policy audit and supporting the launch of a food policy council, a recommendation outlined in the City’s Forward Toledo comprehensive plan.

“There is so much good work already happening in Toledo,” Momenee said. “I see my role as helping to weave it together, connecting people, ideas, and resources to create something even stronger.”

For Momenee, this job is more than professional. It is personal.

“I have always loved this city,” Momenee said. “Now I get to be part of making it better.”