Gillian Goddard is a systems thinker, community organizer and chocolate maker who engages with food, and agriculture as a means of instigating change.
Founder of the Alliance of Rural Communities (ARC), a non-profit where rural residents with urban partners create communities of intention around the principles of regenerative farming, sustainable rural livelihood creation, and circular economy. ARC started in Trinidad and Tobago in 2014, and has spread throughout the Caribbean region to Grenada, Jamaica, Dominica and St. Lucia, and Guyana.
In 2021, Goddard expanded her community of intention across the Atlantic Ocean, as the Founder and Convenor of the Cross Atlantic Chocolate Collective. The Collective unites farming communities from Africa to the Caribbean, to North America. Countries include Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Jamaica, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, Trinidad and Tobago, and the United States.
By combining experiences and stories around food and community Goddard tackles complex issues around power, decolonization, and emancipation.