Common Ground
Food equity the focus for national fellowship awardee Tiff Mackey
A Holyoke Community College culinary arts student has been awarded a national Newman Civic Fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year.
As a Newman fellow, Tiff Mackey, a 44-year-old Texas native who now lives in Holyoke, joins a cohort of more than 170 college students from 39 states who have excelled academically while demonstrating a commitment to community service.
“My commitment to civic engagement is rooted in the belief that food is one of the most powerful tools for building connections across differences,” Mackey said in her Newman Civic Fellowship statement. “Feeding people affirms dignity, fosters belonging, and offers the comfort of common ground.”
Newman Civic Fellowships are awarded annually by Campus Compact, a national coalition of colleges and universities working to advance the public purposes of higher education. The Newman Civic Fellowship is a year-long program that recognizes students who stand out for their leadership potential and commitment to creating positive change in their communities.
The fellowship provides students with educational programs, workshops, and networking opportunities to help nurture their development as civic leaders. With the help of a campus mentor, each fellow takes on a community-based project of their design.
“This group of exceptional students from campuses across the country is such a welcomed addition to the Newman Civic Fellowship,” said Campus Compact President Bobbie Laur. “Now more than ever, it is an honor to recognize student leaders who are applying themselves as changemakers and creating positive impact in their communities.”
Now a second-year student in HCC’s culinary arts associate degree program, Mackey has distinguished herself in the classroom and as a member of the Culinary Arts Club at the HCC MGM Culinary Arts Institute. Among its community activities, the club prepares monthly, full-course family dinners-to-go for people who use the United Way food pantry there. Beyond that, Mackey worked over the summer as a supplementary instructor for the HCC summer youth program and had a volunteer internship with Nuestras Raices, the nonprofit Holyoke farming collaborative.
“I love how that translates into ‘our roots,’” said Mackey. “I worked on their farm and with their mobile market and really got a hands-on and first-person view of what the community needs and what their preferences are.”
Mackey was nominated for the fellowship by Chef Tracy Carter, chair of the HCC culinary arts program and adviser to the Culinary Club, who will serve as her fellowship mentor.
“Tiff is always the first person who wants to help others,” said Carter. “She is really passionate about public health and food security.”
Food, in one form or another, has been at the heart of Mackey’s life for a long time. After dropping out of college in her early 20s – she was studying business and computers – she left Texas and “bounced around a bit,” working for organic farms, growing lettuce, raising ducks, and volunteering at food banks. She settled in western Massachusetts about 10 years ago and has worked with CSAs (communities for sustainable agriculture) at farmers markets in Easthampton, South Hadley and Amherst, while immersing herself in the books of food writer Michael Pollan and feeding her interest in food politics and accessibility.
“Going back to school in my 40s,” she said, “I’m just getting to a place where I can complete what I couldn’t so many years ago. Going to culinary school is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time.”
Mackey now lives on a homestead in Holyoke’s Rock Valley neighborhood, where she raises chickens and maintains a robust vegetable garden.
“It’s too small to call it a farm,” she said, “but I am trying to build it up into a closed loop system.”
For her Newman Fellowship project, Mackey is working on sustainable soup, which would entail turning knife cuts and extra items from the culinary arts classes into a dehydrated, nutrient dense, bagged soup that could be prepared by simply adding hot water, with the soup bags provided to Holyoke residents who use the food pantry at the culinary arts institute.
“The goal is also to incorporate the sustainable soup project into our nutrition class this semester and even into our food styling and marketing classes next semester,” she said.
