BOARD AND STAFF

Board of Directors

Becca Hanson / chair

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio into a family that was one generation removed from the family farm, Becca grew up surrounded by people who prided themselves on their midwestern backyard tomatoes.

A 14-year stint of growing up in Europe seasoned her with a healthy respect for small farms, a clear vision of a walkable urban-agricultural boundary, and a love of good seasonal local food. A subsequent degree in Landscape Architecture from the University of Washington, melded with a background in ecology, provided a solid foundation in design and seeing the built world differently.

Becca arrived on the Island in 1983 and spent most of her time raising two sons and growing an international practice in conservation-based zoo design with her husband. After moving the practice to the Island in 2003, time became available to begin to give back to the community. An opportunity to work with Bart Berg and the Board of Friends of the Farms satisfied her urge to dig in the dirt and grow things while working with amazing farmers and like-minded people, and protecting farmland and open spaces for future generations.

The list of things that inspire Becca is long, but working with FotF she’s thrilled to work towards supporting the Island’s farmers in keeping agriculture alive and flourishing; building on the Island’s resilience movement by creating a “food forest” on public land where the community can come together to enjoy picking and eating the fruits of our labors; protect and enhance watersheds; provide housing for farm interns and young farmers; and expand the amount of fresh, local food provided to the Island’s school children.

Lauren Drakopulos / Secretary

Lauren’s key motivation is to support the people and communities who feed us, especially through equity-based policies and practices. Lauren joined Friends of the Farms in 2019 and has since worked on projects such as farm intern housing, the Young Farmers’ Advisory Committee, and water planning in the face of climate change. In her day job she studies the impact of environmental policies on fishing communities, and how ‘Smart’ technologies are being taken up in fisheries and agricultural production. From slinging fish sandwiches in the Florida restaurant industry to processing salmon in the canneries of Alaska, Lauren has worked in all aspects of the food system. She has worked with organizations such as Fairtrade America, Slow Food and Real Food Challenge among others. When she isn’t advocating for farmers and fishers, you can find Lauren playing in the dirt, foraging weeds, or making spanikopita and dolmades… Opa!

Ginny Brewer

Justin and Adrienne Domingus

Justin and Adrienne are beekeepers and first got involved with Friends of the Farms through invasive weed pulling parties. They moved to Bainbridge from West Seattle in 2020 and wanted to get more involved working with local farmers. They started a small side business to share their produce and honey with the community. They are excited to live in a place that values agriculture and demonstrates this through meaningful support of public farmland.

Larry Lofgren

Born in Tacoma but raised in the midwest, Larry returned to the Pacific Northwest in 2003, and landed permanently on Bainbridge Island in 2013 with his son, an accomplished clarinetist and saxophonist, and now a junior at BHS. A practicing lawyer, Larry began exploring his own agricultural roots while living in Seattle by volunteering regularly with the Beacon Hill Food Forest, attending work parties and planning meetings. A passion for permaculture was born, and Larry is thrilled to be working with Friends of the Farms to create our very own Food Forest! His energy is helping Friends of the Farms emerge as an innovative island institution dedicated to supporting the healthy food local farming can bring. As a practicing lawyer, Larry is also excited to be exploring ways to help farmers with legal issues as well.

Callie Sheehan / Treasurer

Callie is inspired by the work of Friends of the Farm and their associates both as a constant consumer of fresh local farm products and the special agriculture, landscape and community of Bainbridge Island. Applying years of Treasurer experience is a natural fit to this important organization that contributes to the availability of local and healthy food sources, sustainability and ongoing education that enrich farmers, consumers and our planet, all things that Callie is passionate about.

Staff

HEATHER BURGER | EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Chicago born and raised, Heather and her husband arrived on Bainbridge Island in 1996, having survived a cross-country move with 4 cats. As she says, “It took 4 days, but seemed much longer.” As Executive Director of Friends of the Farms Heather loves the opportunity to create connections between farmers, consumers, nonprofits, landowners, restaurateurs, educators, and more. Creating such a rich network allows FotF and the community to work collaboratively, striving towards solutions to problems in the local food system, and to explore innovative ideas for a thriving future for local agriculture.

Heather is working hard to expand opportunities for farmers and consumers here on Bainbridge, and is excited about one of the newest additions on the island: Vireo Farm. “The last memorably delicious thing I ate was fresh basil grown by Vireo Farm right here on Bainbridge Island in winter. Mark Taylor and Tracy Lang have a prototype in their home for an indoor, organic, hydroponic gardening system. They’re taking it to scale this year through a 21-year lease with Friends of the Farms at Johnson Farm (part of the 60+ acres of publicly owned and managed farmland on B.I.). Soon their spectacular locally grown fresh produce will be available year-round. It’s the best tasting basil I’ve ever had, grown with the smallest of carbon footprints.”

Marit Krueger - Program Manager

“I have always loved gardens and flowers”, admits Marit Krueger, the new Program Manager at Friends of the Farms. Growing up on a property that was packed with flowers and fruit trees, most of her earliest memories were picking one or the other, both for pleasure and for profit. As a little girl, in entrepreneurial bursts of energy, Marit & her big brother would pick crab apples or Italian plums, selling them to the local fruit market for summer spending money. They would devote hours to picking blackberries, making milkshakes to enjoy right away and freezing enough to relive the summer throughout the dark days of winter. She remembers with fondness a Saturday morning chore, picking hydrangeas, camellias, rhododendrons or whatever was in bloom to arrange in every room of the house, and learned early on that picking and arranging flowers was much better than scrubbing toilets so that became her chore of choice all year long! An influential role model, Marit’s Grandma Jo was an avid gardener and flower arranger and she encouraged Marit to surround one’s self with beauty for both self-enjoyment and the enjoyment of others, something that has been a motivator in Marit’s life ever since.

In 1987, Marit married her high school sweetheart, Jeffery Krueger and they both became teachers in the Seattle area. However, both dreamed of buying a home and raising a family with a top priority to find a place that had woods enough for exploration and the building of forts and land enough to surround their future children with the same flowers and fruit trees that had surrounded Marit as a little girl. Those dreams led them to Bainbridge Island and in 1990, they purchased their first, and only home with everything they’d hoped for and more. Marit and Jeff enjoyed raising two daughters on Bainbridge Island and both now married and one with a daughter of her own, are also proud to call this area home.

“Our roots go deep”, says Marit, “but we aren’t afraid to fly away and come back again.” For several years, the Krueger family called Kenya home, living, working, learning and serving community on a dairy farm in the middle of pastureland. Each member of the Krueger household embraced a farming lifestyle and brought home with them a shared passion for cultivating, supporting and encouraging local produce and helping to preserve farmland in our own communities. From raising backyard poultry and setting up beehives to encourage pollination to planting gardens, even if it meant containers on an urban porch, each has continued to find ways to keep farming a priority in their collective lives.

Marit believes that the opportunity to build human connections is what makes communities work and in her new role at FotF, she is excited to do just that–look for ways to help people connect with one another and connect to the land around them. In her own garden and small flower farm, Marit loves to grow dahlias, hydrangeas and other flowers that she sells at her roadside flower stand, Finn Hollow Flowers. She sees this as a small but important way to share beauty and infuse hope into her neighbors, or anyone else who happens by her stand.

Nate Hill - Farmland Manager

Nate's passion for food and interest in improving food quality and distribution began at a young age. Growing up in Portland, OR. Nate and his family visited the local food bank every week. While his parents shopped for groceries, Nate and his brother would help by sweeping the floors in exchange for their very own Ben and Jerry's ice cream. During those visits, Nate witnessed families crying tears of joy because they could eat that week. That experience stayed with him.

Later, Nate moved to Idaho, where he studied design and organizational systems and met his wife. While in Moscow, they fell in love with the farmers' market, farm-to-table restaurants, and all the farmers. They felt like they were tasting fruits and vegetables for the first time. The apples tasted sweet and crisp, the greens had flavor, and they started educating themselves about the sustainability and nutritional value of small local farming. They identified health and supporting sustainable practices as shared values and stretched their budget to include a handful of farmers' market items each week.

After graduation, they moved to San Diego, CA, and used their yard for a garden. They slowly filled it with fruit trees, veggies, free-range chickens, and urban bees. When the pandemic hit, Nate thought of all the families he saw as a child and how relatable food scarcity was. He knew he needed to be part of improving our food systems.

Nate took a 6-month intensive course with the San Diego Sustainable Living Institute and received his certificate of permaculture design. After certification, Nate implemented permaculture principles into his own backyard garden. He redesigned the garden beds to accept and retain stormwater runoff and started to rotate sawdust from his furniture business into the chicken coop for bedding. He then took the nitrogen-dense bedding to the garden beds for fertilizer and moisture retention. These upgrades reduced water consumption and increased food production, making it more affordable for Nate to share with his neighbors.

Soon following, Nate was able to design a 3-acre farm in Fallbrook, CA integrating a sustainably built home with biodiverse planting and educational facilities for growing and sharing permaculture knowledge. Experiences like these showed Nate how possible it is to restore the earth and how at odds that knowledge is with the systemic abuse of land driving climate change.

Last year, Nate and his wife moved back to the PNW. Nate sold his furniture business and passed on their backyard farm to a new family eager to try their hand at urban farming. Looking for jobs to utilize his permaculture knowledge and be part of the solution, Nate found FotF and has enjoyed being part of the work to protect sustainable farming and increase community knowledge and engagement.