After spending more than 10 years on the West Coast, the Community Food Initiatives’ new director has returned to her native Appalachia with the hope of ending hunger and promoting healthy food in the region.
Mary Nally, Community Food Initiatives’ new director, is a Meigs County native and an Ohio University graduate who said the work the organization does is crucial to the wellbeing of the local community.
Nally said in an email that she hopes to clarify the organization’s role in the community, increase its financial health, develop strong staff positions and measure program effectiveness during her first year in the position — all while staying grounded in the organization’s mission of “Seed to Self Reliance.”
Nally, who began work on March 26, was chosen from a pool of more than a dozen applicants because of her strong resume.
“Mary was selected based on her background, knowledge of the field of community food security and lifelong accomplishments,” said Tom Redfern, president of the initiative’s Board of Directors.
Nally holds two degrees from Ohio University, including a Masters of Science and Environmental Studies.
“Because Appalachia is known for high poverty and low incomes, many people leave (the area) and don’t come back,” Nally said.
But Nally did return after spending more than a decade in California, Oregon and Washington where she gained valuable experience to bring back to her hometown.
“I have been an AmeriCorps ComCorps Service Member with the Athens City-County Health Department for the past year and a half, and will continue to work there until June, when I will start full-time at CFI,” Nally said.
As executive director, Nally said her primary duties are operations and staff management, grant writing and fundraising, membership development and community engagement.
Staff member Duane Bogart said he is impressed with Nally’s competence in technology, grant writing and communication. She offers efficiency in addition to traditional hands-on farming expertise, as evidenced in her commitment to more internal meetings, he added.
“Her skills are worthy and necessary and mostly lacking in our organization,” Bogart said.
Her commitment to efficiency has led Nally to start with the basics, she said, adding that her primary goal as the new director is to access what is working and what is not.
“Because the work we do is so crucial to the wellbeing of the community, it is vital that it is measurably effective, that our programs are accessible,” she said.
These programs include six community gardens; the Donation Station, which donates fresh, local fare to food pantries; and the Farm to Cafeteria program work together to realize CFI’s core values of self reliance and good healthy food for all.
“CFI offers a multi-pronged programming strategy that teaches gardening, food preservation, (and) seed saving, starts and maintains community gardens, (and) builds a community of people around healthy food, gardening and food system development,” Redfern said.
As is true for the rest of the organization, Nally said her first concern with CFI is for the people it serves.
“The most important role CFI plays in our community is to light the spark of efficacy within people,” she said. “All of us have the ability to contribute to creating a healthy community either as a gardener, a teacher, a cook, or simply as an eater of delicious foods.”
af116210@ohiou.edu
