Here’s a fun fact: In 2019, my wife Emily and I began traveling the country in our self-converted school bus. We spent the next three years working and playing in this country’s gorgeous National Parks and other public lands. Over a picnic on an Idaho mountain top, we finally decided to move back to Maine (where we met) and start building a community. We now live in Southwest Harbor with our two cats, Turkey and Banjo.

My professional background is in sustainable agriculture advocacy and antihunger programs, and I have worked for more than a decade to strengthen local food systems and support the people who make them possible. For me, cooking and coordinating for Open Table MDI means getting more hands-on in this work: helping folks get the nourishment they need, facilitating opportunities to build food prep skills, and providing local growers and producers with a market.

Bringing people together feels like the most necessary thing anyone can do in this time of difficulty and division, and I am drawn to Open Table MDI because it is a powerful connection-maker and community resilience-builder. Stewarding our programs is the best conceivable use for my time and energy.

Aside from all that, cooking is fun!

While I am an adventurous eater, spicy food-lover, and ardent admirer of cuisines from around the world, if you could somehow take a cross-section of my heart you’d find it’s composed entirely of baked mac and cheese.