STAFF & BOARD
Market Mobile
Rachel Van Scyoc
Rachel moved to Rhode Island in 2017 to serve as Farm Fresh Rhode Island’s inaugural Volunteer Coordinator AmeriCorps VISTA member. As an Ohio native, she was excited to move to the east coast after graduating from Capital University with a degree in Public Relations and Communication Studies. In May 2019, she joined Farm Fresh RI and the Food System Enterprise team full-time as the Market Mobile Associate. Since being at Farm Fresh RI, she has learned so much about food systems, the inequities structured within our food system, and how food impacts us in ways from our health to our environmental impact. When she would communicate with volunteers — and now when she communicates with farmers, producers, and customers — she hopes to build and maintain positive relationships with those who contribute to strengthening our local food system.
Market Mobile
Sophia Adair
Farms and restaurants have always been in Sophia’s family. She remembers visiting her great-grandfather during the summer when she was a child. He would take Sophia on tractor rides, and she and her cousins would help feed the cows. Sophia’s grandparents and uncle also owned restaurants during her childhood years. So she has been in the industry ever since she could legally work. Nowadays you can find Sophia still working in restaurants as well as gardening at home with her daughter — but now she’s also helping out here at Farm Fresh RI, where Sophia looks forward to learning more about the ins and outs of the food industry.
Leigh Vincola
Leigh has been working toward food system sustainability in New England for a couple decades. Over the years she’s come at this work from a variety of angles including as an urban gardener, writer, marketing and PR specialist, event planner, and most recently, restaurant owner. After five years in Providence, she feels deeply rooted to the Ocean State’s food community and committed to making fresh food accessible to all.
Leigh is the recipient of the 2018 Eddy Award for Best Social Issues Feature for her story on immigrant farm labor in New England in Edible Rhody. She is also one of the co-owners of Troop, a lively restaurant in Olneyville, and a member of the Rhode Island Food Policy Council.
Leigh holds a bachelor’s degree in sustainable agriculture from Sterling College, and a master’s degree in English from Simmons College. She gardens at a community plot on the West Side of Providence.
Lucie G. Searle
Lucie grew up on a small farm in Exeter, where her family raised beef cattle and pigs. Growing up, she and her brothers were very active in 4-H, and showed their cattle at many local and regional fairs. The farm also grew crops for a roadside stand that offered a large variety of fruits and vegetables, with strawberries and sweet corn being the specialties. Lucie has worked in real estate development — both the for-profit and nonprofit sectors — since 1982. She is especially known for her achievements in revitalizing downtown Providence, evidenced through the three award-winning real estate projects she has developed for AS220 and her ongoing efforts through the Providence Preservation Society. Lucie is one of the original Farm Fresh RI board members, serving for nine years. She stepped off the Board to focus on RI Food Hub development in a professional capacity.
AmeriCorps VISTA
Shauna Cook
Originally from New Hampshire, Shauna has spent the past few years living around the
country — everywhere from Las Vegas to Mississippi. Yet nothing quite felt like home. So after seven
years away, she has finally returned to the Northeast for good. With a bachelor’s degree in English and currently
working toward her Master’s in Public Relations, Shauna views the world through storytelling. Connecting with others through writing is something she is passionate about. She is excited to use that passion to connect the community to local, sustainable food in her year of AmeriCorps VISTA service at Farm Fresh. In her free time you can find her running, reading, or telling her golden-doodle not to eat something she found on the ground.
Sheri Griffin
After establishing a farm stand and mail order citrus business with her parents and grandparents after high school, Sheri attended the University of Rhode Island, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and biology. After graduation, she entered the nonprofit world, beginning as Director of Development and Publicity at AS220, a nonprofit arts center in Providence. Since then, Sheri has worked at a range of nonprofits of various sizes and has become active in her neighborhood, working with other volunteers to keep a library branch open and starting a community garden.
Data & Reporting Specialist
Taylor Jones
Taylor grew up surrounded by family gardens — her grandparents even housed some chickens in their backyard. Always hearing her mother pine for the first tomatoes of the season, it wasn’t until a trip to Italy a few years ago that Taylor truly got it. On that trip, she spent five months volunteering on farms in Italy, Greece, and Japan. While trying her hand at making goat cheese, caring for emus, and milking cows, she lived the connection between farmers, animals, the land, and the food that we eat. After returning stateside, she began her Farm Fresh RI journey, first serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member, and now acting as our Nutrition Education Associate. In her spare time, she loves illustrating, playing with her pet rats, and learning about cheesemaking.
Harvest Kitchen
Bernard Miller
Bernard is originally from Queens, NY, but after visiting Rhode Island often to visit family members living here, he ended up moving to New England himself in 2010. In 2012, after living here for a couple of years, Bernard decided to pursue his passion for culinary arts, and attended Johnson & Wales University. After graduating in 2014, he went on to work for Sodexo at Salve Regina University and served as a Supervisor from 2015 to 2019. In May 2019, he joined our Harvest Kitchen team as Chef Educator and is committed to making a positive contribution to the community!
Onelissa Martinez
As an Environmental Studies major focused on Religion/Philosophy, Onne learned early on the significance of cultivating good habits within communities in order to make sustainable change. Onne has experience working with Farm Fresh RI on both Community Access and Food System Enterprise efforts. She first came on board as a summer AmeriCorps VISTA member for the Healthy Foods, Healthy Families nutrition education program, and has since been at Farm Fresh RI in different capacities. The overall Farm Fresh motto of connecting local food to local people aligns with Onne’s personal outlook on encouraging positive change.
Cara Mitchell
A native Rhode Islander, Cara strives to build a food system with equitable access to food, land, and power. Her passion for food began while a student at Connecticut College where she co-chaired the student-run garden for three years. She went on to work on food access programs in New Haven as an AmeriCorps VISTA Volunteer and Outreach Coordinator with CitySeed, helping to develop their first mobile farmers market. Cara graduated with a joint master’s degree in Public Health and Environmental Science from the School of Public Health and the School of the Environment at Yale, focusing on food systems and health. She is committed to supporting community-oriented food access programming that will positively impact Rhode Island.
AmeriCorps VISTA
Blake Chazan
Blake is excited to join the Farm Fresh RI team as the Farm To School AmeriCorps VISTA member. Blake was born and raised in Providence and is very happy to be back home. He has earned a B.A. in Psychology and Economics from Denison University. After college, Blake moved to New Orleans where he spent three years working in schools and camps throughout the city. In his free time he like to play games, watch sports and movies with his family, and spend time outdoors. He is excited to be a part of Farm Fresh RI and learn more about how food systems operate and the inequities within those systems.
Community Access
Thea Upham
Thea moved to Providence in 2004 to attend Johnson & Wales University and graduated with a degree in Food Service Entrepreneurship. She has spent the past 10 years working with food in different capacities — as a chef, farmers market vendor, and farm hand — and has always been mindful of linking her work to the larger local food system. She firmly believes that the decisions we make about what we eat and where it comes from can have great impacts on the health and welfare of our local community. Thea ties these ideals into her work at Farm Fresh RI every day.
Paula Gill
Paula is a local urban gardener with a love for growing and eating fresh, organic produce. A trip to Italy sparked a desire to change the way she feeds herself, after being deeply impacted by Italians’ passionate relationship to food and the Slow Food movement there. Since that impactful trip, she has dreamt of farming in Tuscany. By joining the Davis Park Community Gardens, as well as becoming a beekeeper, she has been able to make this dream a reality right here in Providence. Paula brings with her a first-hand knowledge of running a small business, in addition to her knack for numbers. She is excited about all that Farm Fresh RI is accomplishing and being an active member of the sustainable food movement in Rhode Island.
Jesse Rye
Jesse is from Algoma, Wisconsin, a small town near Lake Michigan surrounded by farms and fishing boats. His family tree is populated with cheesemakers, barbers and general store owners—needless to say, entrepreneurship, and supporting local businesses are in his blood. Growing up, many of the core industries in Jesse’s small community locked their doors and family farms were replaced by factory farms. These dramatic changes inspired Jesse to understand how communities could revitalize themselves economically while preserving their unique sense of place, cultural traditions, and environmental integrity. Since earning a Masters Degree from the Heinz School of Public Policy and Management at Carnegie Mellon University, he has worked locally as a nonprofit manager, nationally as a researcher and advocate, and statewide as program director and communications specialist. At Farm Fresh, Jesse oversees all social enterprise programs, strategic financial management, communications, technology development and human resources. In the past 5 years, he has worked with the board and leadership staff to double the organization’s operating budget and staff, while maintaining a balanced budget. Jesse devotes much of his time to the development of the new RI Food Hub and serves on the RI Food Policy Council as a member of the steering committee and the Food Solutions New England Chair. Jesse is an avid pickler and a fledgling potter who dreams of making his own fermenting crocks.
Stephanie Bush
Stephanie was born and raised in Rhode Island and loves to be surrounded by good food and good people. She is a Registered Dietitian who received her training from URI and Keene State College in New Hampshire, and has always focused her efforts on community nutrition and especially food insecurity. Stephanie’s career and personal paths have led her to work, volunteer, and educate in many community-based settings such as the Feinstein Center for a Hunger Free America, Head Start, public schools, senior centers, and WIC. She believes in the power of food to create lasting change and strives to support communities in these endeavors.
Rebecca C. Seggel
Rebecca grew up in Providence and graduated with a BA in Classical Studies from Brandeis University, outside Boston. From there, a burning drive to see the world led her to travel extensively and reside in various locations out west. After more than a decade working as a communications consultant for large clients like technology companies, Rebecca longed for a greater sense of shared mission and values than she’d found in the corporate world. Rebecca was drawn back to her family in Rhode Island and the state’s vibrant agriculture and food scene. Now she’s planted fresh roots in Pawtucket and found like-minded community at Farm Fresh RI. She leverages her years of experience to share Farm Fresh RI’s message, help our local farmer and producer partners thrive, and grow our local food economy.
Shonan Jackson
Originally from New York, Shonan grew up around all different backgrounds and kinds of food — ranging from dollar pizza slices to unaffordable 5-star restaurants, and the overall struggles of living in a “food desert.” After moving to Providence, Shonan was able to be educated on the topic of veganism and healthy eating. As a lover of all foods and animals, veganism immediately became part of Shonan’s identity. With previous and continuous experience in nonprofits where he helped LGBTQ+ youth get the support they need for emotional and financial struggles, Shonan found himself studying nonprofits and sociology at CCRI and RIC. Providing accessible fresh food to his city while supporting local farmers has always been a huge interest, so finding Farm Fresh RI was a dream come true for Shonan. As a lover of his community, and a firm believer in lifting as he climbs, Shonan is so excited to be given the opportunity to work with Farm Fresh!
Market Mobile
Hurricayne Cabral
Hurricayne has lived in the Providence area his whole life, graduating from Shea High School in Pawtucket. He started working at Farm Fresh RI in 2018, and since then has grown a strong appreciation for local farmers — in particular, for all the hard work they do every day. Cayne loves working at Farm Fresh and getting products from those local farmers and producers out into the community in many different ways — from delivery to some of the top restaurants in Rhode Island to bringing fresh food right to someone’s front door. When he’s not working hard at Farm Fresh, Cayne enjoys spending quality time with family and friends. He also loves to travel, having visited several different countries and states… and counting!
Molly Ellis
Molly started volunteering at Farm Fresh RI’s Pawtucket Wintertime Farmers Market in December 2008 on a whim and just kept showing up. Working for Farm Fresh RI opened her eyes to the local food movement and the larger environmental movement, causing her to change her concentration at Brown University from English to Environmental Studies. After a year as an AmeriCorps VISTA, Molly started full-time at Farm Fresh RI in June 2013. She assists the Farmers Market Program Manager and the Finance Director with behind-the-scenes data and numbers work, as well as working on the ground managing the Bonus Bucks Nutrition Incentives program and assisting at farmers markets.
Harvest Kitchen
Sean Kontos
Sean is a native of Dover, NH, who has been working in the food service industry for 13 years. After graduating from Johnson & Wales University with a degree in culinary arts in 2011, he went on to cook around Nantucket and the seacoast of New Hampshire, focusing on local and sustainable cooking particularly tied to whole animal butchery. After backpacking through Europe, he and his now wife, moved to Providence where he worked at Local 121, eventually becoming head chef. Most recently, he helped open Farm & Coast Market in South Dartmouth, MA, as a butcher and chef. Sean started out as a volunteer with our RI Farm to School program until moving on to work with Harvest Kitchen.
Grace Feisthamel
Grace is a Rhode Island native and a graduate of Providence College. She recently graduated with a B.A. in Global Studies, and also studied Public Administration and Italian. She became passionate about sustainable and local food systems through her studies both in the classroom and abroad in Malawi, India, and Italy. Through experiences in markets, on farms, and with various NGOs she got her hands dirty and came to love growing, cooking, and eating good food.
Market Mobile
Nikki Ayres
Nikki grew up in coastal New Hampshire and earned a B.S. in Animal Science from the University of New Hampshire. She has always been passionate about animal welfare and worked as a Certified Veterinary Technician for six years. However, after taking on what she thought was to be a part-time job with the Flatbread Company, Nikki switched gears. She fell in love with working with farmers and introducing new ways to support local agriculture through the restaurant industry. Now with over eight years of restaurant management experience under her belt, Nikki cannot wait to use her skills to help connect even more eaters to locally grown food via Market Mobile. When not working, Nikki enjoys spending time with her spunky daughter Luna.
