Who We Are

Staff

Meg Caley, Director of Farming and Education, and Co-Founder

Meg has a passion for bringing people together in the garden and around the table, growing food and community simultaneously. She has been working on a variety of farms since graduating college in 2005, has experience as a classroom and outdoor educator, and loves helping children and adults alike discover their new favorite vegetable. She moved to Colorado in 2008 from a grassfed meat and dairy farm in central New Jersey, where she was the head cheesemaker for two years. Meg has enjoyed her work in Denver so far on various urban agriculture projects including Produce Denver, an edible landscaping company; DeLaney Community Farm in Aurora, a nonprofit CSA project of Denver Urban Gardens; and her own backyard food forest in the North Park Hill neighborhood. She has also worked as an intern at Berry Patch Farms in Brighton, a pick-your-own fruit and vegetable market farm; as a farmers’ market operator for Haystack Mountain Goat Dairy out of Longmont; and as a cheesemonger and teacher of mozzarella-making classes at The Truffle Cheese Shop. Meg is thrilled to be developing Sprout City Farms to work towards a thriving local food system in the Denver area: sprouting city farms, rooting city farmers, and growing good food for the people.

As “founder and farmer-in-chief,” Meg manages all aspects of the operations and programs at the Denver Green School Community Farm. She can be reached at meg@sproutcityfarms.org

Alison Hatch, Director of Development and Outreach

Alison has been working for many years to increase access to local food. A Colorado native, she has lived, cooked, and cultivated from coast to coast. She spent seven delicious years in Maine where her love of cooking evolved into a deep connection with local food and farms. She worked with the Eat Local Foods Colaition of Maine, the Portland Food Co-op, and many other non-profit groups to help make farm fresh food more readily accessible. Alison describes herself in those years as a “landless farmer” travelling between farms where depending on the day of the week, she could be found milking a cow, caring for goats, or raising pigs. Her urban homestead included a garden, root cellar and enough canned, cured, frozen and fermented food to live on for a year! With a desire to bring it all together, Alison returned to Colorado in late 2010 and spent two years living and growing on her family’s farm in Olathe. She returned to Denver at the start of 2013, ready to get back to helping people in the city connect with their food at the source. Alison brings over a decade of non-profit development experience to Sprout City Farms, and hopes to be part of growing a thriving network of city farms to serve the community.

Alison can be contacted at alison@sproutcityfarms.org

Board of Directors

Haley Mackrow, President

Haley is passionate about community education and has experience in community programming in a variety of fields including high-risk and special needs youth, gardens and farms, public and alternative schools, health promotion, and international exchanges. Prior to returning to Denver in 2010, she farmed on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington. She currently works for The Park People, and farms a quarter acre, Sunnyside Up Farm, with her husband.

Haley can be contacted at haley@sproutcityfarms.org

Dan Goldhamer, Vice-President

Dan has been involved in sustainable agriculture since 2002. He first discovered his passion for growing food and the social justice issues surrounding food production at Hampshire College where he graduated with a B.A. in Sustainable Agriculture and Development. During his time at Hampshire, Dan volunteered at the Hampshire College Farm and took a year off to farm at Farm and Wilderness Summer Camps in Plymouth, Vermont. After college, Dan returned home to Colorado to farm in Longmont at Pachamama Farm for the 2007 season. He then completed a Masters in Soil and Crop Sciences at Colorado State University. At CSU, Dan spent two years managing a ¼ acre student and community garden and conducting research on organic forage production in rotation with vegetables. Since graduating from CSU in 2010, he has worked for Dr. Frank Stonaker at the CSU Specialty Crops program managing a 100-member CSA while conducting organic specialty crops research. Having recently moved back to Denver, Dan is looking forward to bringing his experiences back to his hometown and to working with children and adults in helping them discover the magic in growing food that he himself discovered not so long ago.

Joe Sammen, Treasurer

Joe has a passion for working to solve complex public health problems through systemic changes and has a long history of community organizing–both across the nation and around the world. Joe earned bachelor’s degrees in both biology and computer science at the University of Denver and also holds a master’s in public health from the University of Washington. He has experience in organic and urban farming. He currently works as the Director of Community Initiatives for the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved and owns and operates Sunnyside Up Farm with his wife.

Jim Dunn, Secretary

Jim is retired from the Environmental Protection Agency. He brings a passion for raising awareness on environmental issues as well as a great deal of technical experience on farm-related construction. Jim sits on the SCF Grants Subcommittee, and has actively been researching and writing for startup grants. He is a huge sustainability advocate and grows most of his family’s produce in a greenhouse at an elevation of 8,000 feet in the mountains.

Milan Doshi

Milan has always had a passion for food. He graduated from the University of Missouri, and then went abroad for a few years. While in India, he volunteered with Vandana Shiva and her organization Navdanya. The organization focuses on helping farmers make the transition from an unsustainable model of the Green Revolution to the sustainable path of seed sovereignty and organic farming. Upon his return to the US, he headed to NYC for culinary training at the Natural Gourmet Institute of Health & Nutrition. The training educated him on how to take the food he learned to grow and make it into a nourishing meal. Milan then relocated to Denver, and is currently the owner/manager of the Queen Anne Bed and Breakfast. The Queen Anne has actively aimed to become a zero waste property and promotes the concept of community-supported hospitality.

Donna Baker-Breningstall

Donna has worn a multitude of hats in many careers over the years. She was involved in the art business for years and managed an art gallery in Cherry Creek. She was vice president of sales for a local advertising company and ran her own antiques business for 13 years. Most recently she has been teaching reading in a local Denver Public School. She has been very instrumental in bringing a number of “green” initiatives to the school, most notably helping to start a commercial composting program for the cafeteria. Donna is also the garden leader for the 2 gardens at the school. She is a master composter and is starting her certification to become a master gardener. Donna is married and has two terrific teenage daughters. The whole family loves adventure travel and has been to many far-flung places such as Tibet and Greenland.

Laurel Mattrey

Laurel Mattrey is a Sustainability Planner with Denver Public Schools. Laurel has worked for over 10 years in the environmental nonprofit and consulting field in environmental planning, program development, grant procurement and administration, community outreach and energy education and training. Her diverse community network and strength in multi-faceted program management are evidenced by her past experiences coordinating federal policy outreach, energy efficiency education programs, community-based Superfund site organizing and county-wide land use planning processes.

James Hale, Co-Founder

James has been building and researching sustainable food systems for almost 10 years. This has included natural resource extension work in Malawi, Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer; working on organic farms; researching, volunteering, and interning with relevant organizations, such as the University of Colorado, Colorado School of Public Health, Kaiser Permanente, Denver Urban Gardens, and Tri-County Health Department; and growing food in his backyard. He has an interdisciplinary Masters Degree in Environmental Social Science concentrating on the way cultures relate to the environment and has published academic, peer-reviewed journal articles focused upon the ecological, socio-cultural and health impacts of community gardens. In 2008, James founded a local edible landscaping company called Produce Denver before devoting his free volunteer time to Sprout City Farms in 2009. He is currently a Sociology PhD student at Colorado State University researching the barriers to expanding urban agriculture.

Thank you to past board members and staff!

Chad Hagedorn (Co-Founder and 2011 Farm Manager)

Jordan Gorrell (2012 Assistant Farm Manager)

Sandra Jalufka

Elaine Granata

Tim Noe

Matt de Caussin

Jeff Buck

Tori Ford

Jill Litt

Lindsay Smith