Lylee Rauch-Kacenski

Tell us a bit about your background and how it helped shape the expertise you bring to CAE.
Food, art, and community drive everything I do. When I was 5, my mom tried to channel my creativity into a career path. I responded incredulously with “but mom, art is my life.” Since then I’ve carried that passion, love, and determination with me. I have combined formal degrees in visual arts and urban planning & policy with a diverse professional background. I bring the joy I experience through food, art, and activism into the work I do in this world. Initially this was cooking and baking in local kitchens, running retreat center kitchens and gardens that filled their pantries, to a later career path integrating community engagement, placemaking, and technical marketing assistance to food producers and growers. I joined CAE in 2017 and am able to combine my love of food and respect for farmers with creativity and design skills to tell the story of CAE and our local food system.

What excites you about your work and/or the work of CAE?
We are actively creating a different path forward for a variety of sectors within the food system.  I love that CAE champions an agricultural economy while understanding that deep community relationships are a part of that. Each of us is an integral piece in the local food system, and in our communities.  It’s incredible to be part of an organization that is working from a place of abundance, and interconnection.

What brings you joy? (work or otherwise)
Intentionally creating community, bringing bright colors into every space I am in, making food with love and sharing meals, putting googly eyes on everyday objects, cuddling with humans and pets.

What brings you hope? (work or otherwise)
People sharing their skills and passions with the world. Art & activism. Imagining a more interconnected and compassionate future. Seeing people grow food and share meals. The fearlessness and determination to create a better world that I see in today’s youth.