
Meet the board

Reverend Willard Bass, Jr., M Div
Board Member
Reverend Willard Bass, Jr., M Div is an ordained minister whose vocation is centered on building authentic communities of equity across racial and ethnic in all sectors of the community. As Director of the Freedom Tree at IDR, Assistant Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church and Past President of the Ministers Conference of Winston Salem and Vicinity, he has been able to engage the broader community in the work of long-term institutional transformation for social change. Mr. Bass is the co-founder of the SHARE Cooperative of Winston Salem and the Harvest Market Food Store that addresses food insecurity in Forsyth County. As a board member of IRDI, Mr. Bass fills our organization's Food Hub representative role. As a founding member of Winston Salem's emerging Food Innovation District, Mr. Bass and his collaborative venture SHARE Cooperative assist in the strategic development and growth of Renew Forsyth's unique community-impact model called the Story of the Plate by linking their customers to the growing regenerative supply-chain that is taking shape across the city. SHARE is specifically focusing on linking bionutrient food to their Food Rx program and the larger soil-to-food supply-chain across Forsyth County.