Staff

Deb Bentzel, Farm to Institution Program Manager

As the Farm to Institution Project Manager, Deb connects local institutional food service professionals with local growers, producers and values-based distributors, in order to help promote a more sustainable and humane agriculture system in our region and to bring more good, local food into institutional dining. These institutions include colleges, hospitals, eldercare communities, and public, charter, and independent schools. Prior to joining Fair Food in 2008, Deb worked in the public health sector, and managed environmental and international health research projects and programs.

Noel Bielaczyc, Farmstand Produce Manager
Noel hails from the tip of Northern Lower Michigan, where from a young age he developed a deep interest in food, natural sciences and art. He attended the University of Michigan where he received a BFA in Scientific Illustration with a minor in Biology. At various points before, during and after college, he worked as a cook & caterer, fishmonger and baker. He also taught drawing and watched birds.

After moving to Philadelphia in 2009, Noel was hired as the seafood buyer and fishmonger at a local food co-op. He began volunteering at the Fair Food Farmstand to satisfy his passion for cooking, agriculture and local foods. In August of 2011 he officially joined Fair Foods as manager and produce buyer. His favorite thing about working in the Philadelphia food system is meeting the amazing farmers and producer. He also loves handling gorgeous local produce, the challenges of seasonality and the constant inspiration to cook and eat.

Christina Dowd, Communication & Outreach Director

Since working as an Art Director for over 7 years, her professional knowledge spans to advertising, marketing, communications & publishing but the idea of returning to non-profit work seemed more fulfilling. The mission of Fair Food is an easy one – why wouldn’t you want to support your “neighbors” on land you are close to!

Holly Guerin, Farmstand Staff

Holly joined Fair Food as a summer intern while finishing a degree in Geography and Urban Studies at Temple, where she focused on food policy and urban agriculture.  She also studied a bit with a Nutritionist/Herbalist and believes that food can be the best medicine.  Holly loves plants and critters, and daydreams about having her own little farm some day.   She has been a full time Farmstander since the Fall of 2010.

Nate Hopkins, Farmstand Staff, Volunteer Coordinator

Nate began volunteering at the Fair Food Farmstand in the fall of 2008. He was working for Capogiro at the time, which sparked many of his culinary interests and desires to support his local food system. He joined the staff full time in the spring of 2010 as Volunteer Coordinator and Farmstand support. Often found cooking and gardening, Nate also writes a personal blog (tastebudsandtidbits.com) with longtime friend (and also Farmstand volunteer!) Julia to share their favorite recipes and other foodie adventures.

Ann Karlen, Executive Director

Ann Karlen is the founding Director of Fair Food, launched in 2001 to promote a humane sustainable agriculture system for the Philadelphia region. Ms. Karlen consults with farmers and wholesale buyers such as chefs and grocers to help build business relationships that bring more local food into the marketplace. In 2003, she launched the Fair Food Farmstand in the Reading Terminal Market, a year round all-local grocery store selling products from over 90 family farmers and producers, and providing exceptional public education to a diverse customer base. From 2006 – 2009, Ms. Karlen was a member of the Management Team that helped launch Common Market, a values driven local food distribution business in Philadelphia, and then served as a member of the Board of Directors through 2010. Ms. Karlen currently serves on several non-profit boards and councils, including Philadelphia’s Food Policy Council.

Yvonne Jones, Farmstand Staff

Yvonne, a native Philadelphian who has also lived in New York City and Oaxaca, Mexico, joined Fair Food Farmstand in June 2011. She is a writer, doctom refugee, and urban farmgirl.

Prior to Fair Food, Yvonne worked with food companies including the White Dog Cafe, NYC’s Les Trois Petits Cochons, and the Metropolitan Bakery and New World Coffee chains. She also spent many years as an editor/producer
for diverse media companies including AOL Time Warner, Philadelphia Magazine, National Public Radio, About.com, Oxygen, the Greater Philadelphia Film Office, and Comcast Interactive Media. She is thrilled to return to her first workplace love, food, and to writing and producing her own media projects.

When not working at Fair Food or baking seasonal mini pies for weekly clients, Yvonne stays busy with urban farming, yin yoga, devouring the finance section, voiceover work, and hooping. An avid reader and writer, you would have to pry her library card and Kindle out of her cold, dead hands.

Yvonne has many exciting things on tap for 2012. Her first book, No Tea for the Fever, a celebration of the best films by and about black women, will be released in April 2012. Her twice-monthly cookbook club and foodie biking tours will debut in Spring and Summer 2012. And she is actively seeking a vacant lot on which to build a small mortgage-free house and tiny urban farm by Summer 2013.

Paul Lawler, Farmstand Cheesemonger,  Dairy & Meat Manager

Paul joined the staff of Fair Food on St. Valentine’s Day 2010 and what an affair it has been! He is excited by seasonal South Philly figs, Pine Barren blueberries, and Green Meadow Asparagus but is mostly keen on cheese.

His role at Fair Food entails constant conversation with dairy farmers, invading regional cheeserooms, and sniffing out aging rooms to court the best of the local cheesemakers and bring their goods to the Farmstand. He cares deeply about the local dairy community and is thrilled to be working for Fair Food at a time when local farm cheese grows tastier by the month!

Previous passions include running cheese for a lovely place called Kimberton, apprentice cheesemaking for Keswick Creamery, hawking raw milk in Clark Park, and getting schooled on cheese whilst mongering for DiBruno Bros. Paul is eager to dish out the latest on a seasonal cheese or give you a taste of what will melt beautifully on your morning toast.

Jennie Noakes, Farmstand Operations Manager

Jennie Noakes joined the Fair Food Farmstand staff in May of 2010 after several years teaching music and writing at the University of Pennsylvania.  She has a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology and her knowledge about food stems primarily from hands-on experience (particularly when it comes to hogs and canning).

Jennie hails from the mountains of Virginia, which likely encouraged her interest in all things farming (augmented by an early-childhood obsession with the “Little House” books and anything “old timey”).   She now lives in South Philadelphia, where she has taken it as her mission to see how much food she can grow in her 8’ x 8’ cement back yard.

Peggy Paul, Farmstand Staff

Shivon Pearl, Farmstand Staff, Double Dollars Program Manager

Shivon joined Fair Food as a volunteer one day a week and enjoyed the experience so much, she begged for a second day!
That was over a year ago and since then, she has become a full-time staff member and more recently, Double Dollars Program Coordinator.

Shivon’s namesake, her grandmother Pearl, inspired her to eat for health and sparked a fire that Shivon can’t (and doesnt want to) put out! Through the Double Dollars program she is working to ensure access to healthy and locally grown foods for Philadelphia’s most food-insecure residents, not to mention making grandma proud.

Shivon moonlights (in the sunlight) as a certified Yoga instructor. She believes that sustaining our bodies, our communitities and our earth is a labor of love and everyone should be able to do what they love. When she isn’t teaching her fellow Fair Fooders alignment and breathing techniques, Shivon can be found yoga-ing or reading in her backyard, scouring flea markets for the perfect piece of jewerly, marveling nature’s wonderment and fantisizing about bacon!

Annemarie Vaeni, Program Associate

Annemarie came to Fair Food in January of 2011 after moving to South Philly a few months earlier from Washington, DC. She graduated in 2010 from a dual Masters program in Natural Resources and Sustainable Development at American University in Washington, DC and the University for Peace in Costa Rica. During her studies she focused on the connections between communities and sustainable food systems but with Yankee farmers and restaurateurs for grandparents, food was always an inevitable love. She has had a blast getting to know her new city and connecting with Philly’s local foodie community and in her spare time, Annemarie loves exploring the city and finding new treats at the Farmstand and nearby farmers’ markets.

Albert Yee, Farmstand Staff

Albert’s always had a not so secret love affair with food. His family owned a Carvel ice cream store growing up so retail has always been in his blood. After moving to Philly, on a lark with his [now] wife, Kate, he learned about the sustainable foods movement as an extension of expanded political and social awareness. Since joining the Farmstand crew, he’s learned more about food systems than anything he ever paid attwntion to in school. He’s currently happily on a first name basis with producers and purchasers all around the region. The wonderful friends he’s made at the Farmstand (co-workers, volinteers and customers alike) help define who he is in Philly. He can’t live without his favorite: double hickory smoked bacon- heavenly; his wife, a vegetarian, loves the local artisanal cheeses he brings home on a nearly daily basis.