The Core Group is composed of members of the CSA who volunteer their time year-round to run the CSA, working with our farmers, recruiting members, running the distribution site, maintaining records and accounting, managing member work shifts, writing the newsletter, performing community outreach, etc. Core Group members often focus their efforts on a specific area or task, but there are at-large members as well, whose contributions vary. Get to know the current Core Group in their bios below that touch on their involvement in and passion for the CSA. If you’re interested in joining the Core Group, please email us for further information.

Alicia Modeen, Late Shift Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2012; Joined Core Group: 2012
Favorite veggies: I love all vegetables, but I have a particular weakness for tomatoes of every variety and corn on the cob.

I am a life long Northeasterner, having grown up in Connecticut and gone to school in New Hampshire. I came right to the city after graduating college in 2010 and have lived in Prospect Heights for just over a year. Food plays a central role in most areas of my life–socially, academically, and hopefully some day professionally. When I’m not coordinating your Week A work shifts, I am a second year law student and an intern in the kitchen at a delightful Cobble Hill Italian restaurant specializing in local, seasonal dishes. My goal is to use my experiences to work in food policy–changing the way we subsidize, grow, and think about food for the better.

Audrey Morrell, Additional Products Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2008; Joined Core Group: 2008
Favorite veggies: the three sisters; corn, green beans and tomatoes-toss them with a vinaigrette and feta=heaven. Least favorite: fennel. I’ve tried really hard to like it. I really like peaches, though.

I am the Additional Products Coordinator for the CSA, a.k.a the Tsarina of Other Stuff, the go-between for you & extras like coffee, eggs, Lewis Waite, and now dairy (yay!).
I love to cook and eat and would rather be doing those two things more than just about anything. When I am forced to do other things, I am a stained glass restorer and artisan (“artist” applies too much pressure to my soul). Originally from Ohio and a few places in between, I moved to New York in ’07, ’cause why not? I really don’t want to admit that I moved here to be with my then-boyfriend-now-husband, Nick, and also because I had nothing better going on, while there happens to be a lot of broken stained glass here needing a bit o’ fixin’. Hey, better to do it while we’re young and dumb, eh? Though I think the “young” part is almost over. My favorite quotes come from my dad, Merle, which are, “Never be afraid to take something apart and put it back together again, that way you can figure out how it works.” and a less eloquent way of saying the same thing is, “Treat it like you don’t give a damn.” Words to live by.

Cambria Bold, Workshift Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2008; Joined Core Group: 2011
Favorite veggies: kale, heirloom tomatoes, and corn.

I’m the Managing Editor of TheKitchn.com, a popular website devoted to food and home cooking. I’m also a singer and songwriter, so when I’m not writing about food and kitchen products, I’m likely singing and workshopping songs for an upcoming album. I adore food, eating, and Brooklyn, so given that the PHCSA hits all those notes, it’s not surprising that I live for the start of each season. I joined the CSA in 2008 and became the Workshift Coordinator in 2011.

Elizabeth Solomon, At-Large Member, Board of Directors
Joined CSA: 2005 or 2006; Joined Core Group: 2007
Favorite veggie: arugula
Favorite part of the CSA season: late summer corn craze

I am a nutritionist with the New York City Health Department and manage nutrition education for young children and their parents and teachers. I love food, cooking, and local produce and have been involved to varying degrees as a core member since 2007. I am also on the board of directors of the CSA.

Jen Chapin, Community Outreach
Joined CSA: 2010; Joined Core Group: 2011

I am a songwriter and performer of urban folk soul music. I am a food justice activist, notably as a Board member of the hunger-fighting organization WhyHunger. I am a mother of two boys, Maceo and Van. Maceo attends PS9 which hosts our pickups, and I have helped the core group as a liason to the school and administration as well as working on community outreach for the CSA. I joined the CSA in 2010 and the core group in 2011, I think. I really love all the veggies from the CSA, and especially appreciate the fact that the choice of “what” is largely made for me — I just need to figure out “how” (the fun part)

Joanna Shaw Flamm, Treasurer
Joined CSA: 2008; Joined Core Group: 2010
Favorite part of the CSA season: I love the first pickup! After a long winter, seeing the first greens and strawberries is more exciting than Christmas morning.

I’m a writer and performer originally from Minnesota. I got involved with the CSA after a friend ran one back home, and I love the way it’s introduced me to my neighbors. I joined the Core Group after my first trip to Windflower Farm, and on my most recent trip I got engaged! Needless to say, I think Windflower is a magical place. As the CSA Treasurer, I make sure that Ted and his family, as well as our other share suppliers, get paid in full and on time, which is an important part of our CSA commitment.

Johanna Thomsen, Events Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2009; Joined Core Group: 2009
Favorite veggies: Nothing beats a Windflower tomato, and when we get ground cherries from Ted my heart skips a beat.
Favorite part of the CSA season: I love the peak when we’re all stumbling out onto St. Marks under the weight of multiple bags of amazing veggies.

I am an urban herbalist with a background in dance and personal training, working in arts marketing.  Windflower Farm is one of my favorite places on earth, and in my role as Events Coordinator for the Core Group, I try to find ways to enhance everyone’s experience in the CSA, from lecture demonstrations, workshops, and mixers, to bringing the farm crew to Brooklyn and the CSA members to the farm to give everyone a deeper understanding of what goes into making a CSA work.

Justin Myers, Early Shift Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2011; Joined Core Group: 2012
Favorite veggies: corn, sweet potatoes and tomatillos.
Favorite part of the CSA season: Be they flowers, squash, carrots, or beets, I love seeing the rainbow of colors through food.

I left California for New York City in 2006 to pursue a PhD in Sociology at the CUNY-Graduate Center. Over six years later I find myself living and loving Brooklyn while I write my dissertation on food justice movements and teach courses at Brooklyn College on environmental sociology. When I am not doing either of these activities you will find me growing food in a community garden plot or at the Prospect Heights CSA as the Early Shift Coordinator (where I get to enjoy watching the procession of happy people dream about what meals they will make from such lovely food).

Karen Crow, Late Shift Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2012; Joined Core Group: 2012
Favorite veggie: Kale, definitely kale.

I am originally from the South but moved to Brooklyn about a year ago to work in healthcare policy. Before moving to Brooklyn, I worked in a food access program in Boston and my job included coordinating a CSA for low income families. It was my first exposure to a CSA—I loved how it personalized the food experience and helped me get to know people in the community, and I knew I wanted to get involved with a CSA when I moved here.

Kenneth Drake, Social Media & Blog Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2011; Joined Core Group: 2012
Favorite veggie: Peppers of any kind!
Favorite part of the CSA season: Coffee pickups

I was born and raised in small town Texas and moved to New York to attend NYU, where I now serve as an Academic Advisor for undergraduate students at the College of Arts and Science. My sister-in-law convinced me to join a CSA and it’s been an amazing experience! In the core group, I help with the blog, emails, and social media (so, follow us on Twitter!).

Maggie Galvan, Website Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2010; Joined Core Group: 2012
Favorite veggie: Kale, especially now that I discovered how to massage it with salt to use it raw in salads!
Favorite part of the CSA season: tomato-crazy late summer

I moved to New York from Los Angeles to pursue a PhD in English and hope to write extensively about contemporary American women’s comics in my dissertation. The kitchen is the heart of my household, so I joined the CSA in 2010 to gain access to a wider range of vegetables. I am now becoming more involved in the community by helping out with the website as a Core member.

Meret Lenzlinger, Core Coordinator & Secretary
Joined CSA: 2007; Joined Core Group: 2007
Favorite part of the CSA season: The first few pick-ups are the moment all the hard work from the pre-season is paying off, and the leafy greens we get at the beginning are so exciting. Garlic scapes are the emblem of that start for me. They also just look funny.

I am an architect and professor, originally from Switzerland. Growing up, I lived in a small town where you knew your butcher, chose your head of lettuce while it was still planted in the ground at the gardener’s, and picked up the warm milk from the dairy minutes after it was delivered by the local farmers, many of them the parents of my school mates. Joining the CSA brought back to me a bit of that connection that would have been lost otherwise.

I am the coordinator and secretary. I act as the main liaison to Ted and the Windflower Farm, I set up and lead core group meetings and, as secretary, take and send out meeting minutes. I also just try to keep an eye on what all the other core members are working on and see if they need any support. Thankfully, the coordinator’s job has gotten a whole lot easier in the last couple of years, as so many dedicated and capable people have joined the core group and taken on duties that previously fell to the coordinator!

Roxanne Ryce-Paul, Early Shift Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2007 or 2008; Joined Core Group: 2010
Favorite veggie: If Farmer Ted could only deliver a single vegetable to the CSA every week, my vote would be for asparagus!

Born in Trinidad & Tobago, I’ve lived in Prospect Heights since 2001.
I was a huge fan of the farm produce available at the Union Sq. and Tomkins Sq, farmers’ markets in the mid 1990′s. Shortly afterwards, I joined the 6th St. CSA on the LES to connect in a small way to my immediate community and to support the community of farmers who keep us alive, and when I understood the implications of corporate agriculture on small people-run farms and on our food supply.
I joined the Prospect Heights CSA in 2007 or was it 2008? when I discovered there was one in PH, and became a PHCSA site coordinator and core member in 2010. Also, I could no longer afford the farmers’ markets.
I am trained as an architect and work as a Historic Preservation Consultant and recently became a certified Passive House Architect.

Tamar Kornblum, Communications, Membership, & Technical Coordinator
Joined CSA: 2010; Joined Core Group: 2010

I’m a tech geek who loves sunshine, working with people, cooking, and eating great food. Getting involved with the CSA was a no-brainer! I joined the PHCSA in 2010, and soon started attending Core meetings as a member-at-large. Now I work on communications and membership, and manage the technical backend. Outside of CSA work and tending to my fire-escape garden, I have worked in cognitive psychology research, at Apple, and am now pursuing a Masters in Computer Science at CUNY-Brooklyn College.