You can help support ACORN's work, and local food, through their current fundraising effort here. 

When did you know that you wanted to work in food?

I grew up in Italy during the sixties when you could still go into a village and see spaghetti drying in the sun. The culture of food was deep - it was rooted in the land, it followed the seasonal rhythms of the year; it was at the heart of family life; food was love, nourishment and celebration. Everything was so fresh and bursting with flavor, smell and color - the produce had been in a field less than 24 hours before you ate it. These early experiences profoundly shaped my life journey - food, I realized, isn't just another commodity in the marketplace - it is our culture - it touches everybody and everything around us.

How did you get your current good food job? 

I grew into my current job over the course of a decade. I started as a co-founder of a community organization focused on relocalizing our basic needs, then volunteered as a board member and President when we decided to organize as an educational nonprofit focused on local food agriculture and then became the part-time Executive Director as the organization grew.

How did your previous work or life experience prepare you for a good food job? 

I've worked in and around the food business most of my working life. When I completed my MBA, I worked as a marketing consultant with a food importer in New York on a number of European food and beverage brands. Then I moved to Vermont and joined the start-up team as Director of Communications at Earth's Best Baby Foods, the first national organic baby food brand in the market. Based on that experience, I wrote a strategic plan for the Pew Charitable Trust on using market strategies to accelerate the transition to a more sustainable agriculture. My next job was another start-up, I worked as North American Sales Manager for an Italian glass company that manufactured and distributed jars and bottles for a wide variety of customers in the the food and beverage industry from coast to coast.

What was the greatest obstacle you had to overcome in pursuing your Good Food Job dream? 

I've always been drawn to challenges that require a lot of self-discipline, perseverance and patience before you can see the fruits of your work. As they say, timing is everything in life and I've been early before! It can be hard and that's when I think it is important to have other things in your life that nourish and sustain you like yoga, meditation, exercise and good food!

Name one positive thing that a former employer taught you that you continue to appreciate?

Stay current. When you are working closely with other people in any organization (be it a business, a nonprofit or your family), it is important to encourage and invite colleagues to communicate and express their difficult feelings in the present moment rather than stuff them and have them build into resentment and grudges. Clear the air!

What can you identify as the greatest opportunities in food right now? 

The local food space is just beginning to flower. A lot of hard work has gone into bringing us this far through the efforts of pioneering growers, co-ops, restaurants, farm-to-school and the support of some important policy changes. In our region, new opportunities are just now emerging with institutional buyers, with growers scaling into wholesale through expansion or aggregation to supply regional markets and with the growth of new value-adding businesses.

If you could be compensated for your work with something other than money, what would it be? 

Appreciation. I am human and I feel that we all need to be seen and valued for the work we do.