Our Community Partners & Organizing Committee

Kitchen Angels, the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute, Home Grown New Mexico and The Santa Fe School of Cooking have teamed up to present educational cooking classes on how to cook local, organic meals on a budget.

Joining under the name of the Healthy Food Cooking Coalition of Santa Fe, this community enrichment program brings together the talents and resources of all four partners to put the focus on enjoying healthy, local food that is both delicious and affordable.

Representatives from each of the organizations, as well as community volunteers, form the core organizing committee.

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About the Organizations

Kitchen Angels is dedicated to providing free, nutritious meals to our homebound neighbors facing life-challenging conditions. Over 725,000 meals have been served since our founding in 1992.

Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute is a nonprofit educational organization founded in 2002 to support the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market. The Market originated in a parking lot with six vendors in 1968 and has since grown to be one of the oldest, largest and most successful growers markets in the country. Diminishing open space in the downtown area for vending presented the Market with the possibility of being forced to the outskirts of town. The Institute funded, built and now manages a permanent farmers’ market building in the Railyard; implements programs to promote agriculture and other land based traditions in northern New Mexico; and educates consumers about the cultural, nutritional and economic benefits of buying locally produced food and agricultural products.

 

LOMB 2014 Organizing Committee

 

Sam Baca

Sam Baca is a native of Santa Fe and has done various community work in Santa Fe for most of his life. He holds a Masters Degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan. His professional career includes working as a school social worker in the Santa Fe Public Schools, helping found and serve as the first Executive Director of Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Santa Fe, Program Director for Cornerstones Community Partnerships, and Program Manager for the New Mexico Behavioral Health Collaborative. He is currently Program Director for the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute.

 

Mary Pat Butler

A food enthusiast, gardener, and event coordinator, Mary Pat has been with Local Organic Meals on a Budget since its first year. In 2012 she shared guest chef duties, teaching a class with another LOMB devotee, Amy Hetager. Using fresh, seasonal items, Mary Pat creates the delicious appetizers that are enjoyed at the start of each class. All of her appetizer recipes are available online.

 

 

Sondra Gadell

Sondra Gadell grew up in an Air Force family and was fortunate to be exposed to farmers markets beginning at an early age in Indonesia, and then in Hawaii and Belgium. After college she continued her love of farmers markets while living in Atlanta, Northern Virginia, Denver, Dallas, and now Santa Fe.

Sondra spent many years working in elementary schools with a high percentage of children on free and reduced meals, which in turn got her very interested in making affordable and healthy food accessible for children and their families. She is currently working at the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute where one of her favorite things is being able to dispense SNAP benefits to customers at the weekly farmers markets.

 

Pat Marciano

When Pat Marciano first moved to New Mexico with six children, her family bought and operated a working farm in the Estancia Valley growing potatoes, pinto beans, vegetables and a large field of alfalfa. Since moving to Santa Fe she has dedicated her time to volunteering at Las Golondrinas, Kitchen Angels, Ambercare Hospice, Farmers Market Institute, the O’Keeffe Museum and Local Organic Meals on a Budget. Through her community work Pat has come to realize how important it is to grow our own foods due to the lack of nutrition in mass produced foods. She applauds our local farmers who are working very hard to provide us with the nutritional foods we need, and the efforts of Local Organic Meals on a Budget to educate the community on how we can afford to buy locally and eat healthier.

 

Mae Martinez

Mae Martinez was born and raised in northern New Mexico and brings a wealth of wisdom, cultural understanding and compassion to serving the Santa Fe community. Mae was educated in business administration at Northern New Mexico Community College. She has more than 25 years of experience in administrative office work in state government, public schools, and nonprofits and is dedicated to improving the quality of and accessibility to nutrition food on the local level. She is currently the Client Services Manager at Kitchen Angels where she enjoys helping homebound individuals access the vital nutrition they deserve. In addition to her work at Kitchen Angels, Ms. Martinez is also involved in fundraising, volunteer coordination, and planning work with Local Organic Meals on a Budget.

 

Tony McCarty

Mr. McCarty has been the Executive Director of Kitchen Angels since 1993. During his tenure, he moved the organization from its original location at the Westminster Presbyterian Church kitchen to the National Guard Armory kitchen, and then led a successful capital campaign to build the Coll-Green Angel Depot, an entire facility devoted to ending hunger in New Mexico. Mr. McCarty has guided Kitchen Angels to become one of Santa Fe's best known and best loved non-profit social service agencies. He has supervised all aspects of the agency and has developed innovative fund raising projects to support the organization.

Mr. McCarty has established many positive long-term relationships with numerous local organizations and co-chaired the committee that successfully established, by resolution of both governing bodies, the City & County of Santa Fe Advisory Council on Food Policy. Currently, he is a driving force behind the Northern New Mexico Service Providers Alliance, a multi-agency coalition of non-profits whose mission is to "collaborate in providing comprehensive services to individuals in need, and to work together to effect systemic change."

 

Past Committee Members

 

Susan Bower

Susan has had a passion for cooking and growing organic vegetables since her late teens. Living in Santa Fe for the past 15 years, she and her husband created Eldorado Windy Farm a suburban home farm where they keep bees, grow vegetables, herbs, fruit trees and varieties of flowering plants. As an English instructor, workshop facilitator and coordinator of several literacy programs, Susan traveled extensively residing for many years in southern France and northern India. She has served on numerous boards dedicated to supporting education and indigenous cultures. While living off the grid in Maine, Susan learned the basics of organic gardening and later became a macrobiotic counselor. She is a tai chi practitioner and artist, helps friends sell their farm goods at the Santa Fe Farmer’s Market and is thrilled to promote healthy eating through LOMB!

 

Tony D'Agostino

A designer, community organizer and unabashed idealist, Tony D'Agostino learned the value of service while working with Marianne Williamson to start Project Angel Food in Los Angeles. He was one of the founders of Santa Fe's Kitchen Angels in 1992 and served as its first Executive Director. Along with contributing the original idea for LOMB, Tony donates the program's graphics and website through his design studio, A.D. Design. Tony enjoys African drumming, marimba playing and working with his fellow LOMBees, who are all amazing, generous and loads of fun!

 

Lois Harvie

Lois Harvie graduated from the Institute of Integrative Nutrition in October 2011, as a Holistic Health Coach. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Art History and Elementary Education from Arizona State University and also attended the Scottsdale Culinary Institute.

A self-professed foodie, Lois enjoys art, gardening, and hiking! In 2008 she started cookwithmisslane.com a Healthy Kids Cooking program in Albuquerque, NM. The program centered around teaching kids the importance of Healthy eating using fresh local, and organic ingredients while having fun in the kitchen. She enjoys teaching folks how to cook local, seasonal ingredients and is the new Volunteer Coordinator at the Santa Fe Community Farm. She often works with busy, stressed out moms who are struggling with finding healthy ways to feed themselves and their families and helps them to find healthy ways to nourish themselves from the inside out! Learn more at www.newlifenewbody.com

 

Kendal Martel

Kendal Martel serves as the Americorps Food Cadre member at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market Institute. She graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas with a degree in Sociology and Geography. She was raised in rural Southeast Texas, where complex connections between food security, nutrition, and environmental issues became her passion. Before working with the Institute, she worked as a community organizer working to protect rural landowners and the natural areas of Texas. She loves hiking, camping, and being outdoors, as well as cooking the great produce from the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market.

 

Sarah Noss

Sarah Noss is a native Santa Fean. After graduating from Stanford University, she returned to Santa Fe, where she worked for many years in advertising as vice president of Creative Images. After a brief stint in Paris, she came back to the States and ended up in Chicago for almost a decade where she worked in advertising and promotions in the publishing industry.

She returned to Santa Fe in the early 90s and worked for a variety of nonprofits as a writer, consultant, fundraiser and grant writer. She worked for St. Vincent Hospital Foundation, Cornerstones Community Partnerships, and from July 2005 to March 2013 was the executive director of the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute. During her tenure, the $5 million Farmers Market Building in the Railyard was conceived, funded and completed. She also initiated the Micro Loan Fund at the Institute, the Institute’s movie series on food, agriculture and sustainability, the food stamp program at the Market, and a program in collaboration with New Mexico’s major land conservation nonprofits to preserve family farms and ranches in northern NM.