Annual Meeting

MOFGA’s Annual Meeting on January 18 via Zoom

Please join us for MOFGA’s annual meeting on Thursday, January 18 at 7 p.m. held online via Zoom. 

At the annual meeting, you’ll hear reports from board members and MOFGA’s executive director on our impact during 2023 and plans for 2024.

Members in good standing are encouraged to vote on our 2024 roster of board members. You can vote online or by completing the paper ballot included in the winter issue of The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener and mailing it to: MOFGA 2024 Election, P.O. Box 170, Unity, ME 04988. Please feel free to make copies of the ballot for household members. Paper ballots must be received by January 11, 2024.

2024 Proposed Roster of MOFGA Board Members

MOFGA extends our deepest appreciation and respect to Sam Brown for his service as a board member over the past years, as he concluded his final term.

Slate of MOFGA board member candidates for election in 2024 to three-year terms:

  • Sikwani Dana (second term)
  • Craig Hickman (second term)
  • Ellen Sabina (second term)
  • Jessie Spector (second term)
  • Ivonne Vazquez (new nominee)
  • Kessi Watters Kimball (new nominee)

Slate of MOFGA board officers for election in 2024 to one-year terms:

  • Ellen Sabina, serving as president
  • Sikwani Dana, serving as vice president
  • Patty Duffy, serving as treasurer
  • Anna Shapley-Quinn, serving as secretary

Biographies of New Nominees:

Kessi Watters Kimball is a Mi’kmaq food and medicine producer who descends from the Listuguj First Nation. She is a community organizer and foundation builder with Eastern Woodlands Rematriation Collective as well as the Food Sovereignty Director for Bomazeen Land Trust. She started Mawiomi Garden in 2020 with her children, nephews and little cousins. The garden is now in its fourth year and has grown to support five Indigenous youth apprentices and expanded its poultry and butchering operation. They currently cultivate five acres in the unceeded Wabanaki homelands on the Sandy River in Starks, Maine. Kimball also serves on the Farmer Advisory Board for FRSAN-NE/Cultivemos and is a 2022 Braiding Seeds Fellow. They create innovative collaborations across organizations to practice radical food justice and inspire young folks to restore/rebuild traditional food systems.

Ivonne Vazquez (she/her/ella) is passionate about native plants, herbs, pollinators, DIY, sustainability, the environment, the outdoors and sharing gardening knowledge. With years of gardening, outdoor education and volunteer experience, she is most often found using her skills as a former Master Gardener Volunteer, current Licensed Registered Maine Guide/Recreation, Basic Gardening Instructor at Bangor (Maine) Adult Community Education, small acreage diversified farmer and native plant grower. She recently earned a certificate in Sustainable Landscaping & Garden Management and another in Permaculture Design.

Vazquez and her husband own Bas Rouge Farm & Forge in Orono, Maine, which was established in 2022. Transitioning from a decade old homestead to a farm business. The primary enterprise is a native plant nursery. They are participants in the MOFGA Journeyperson program (2023/24). In addition to growing and selling native plants at several local Farmers’ Markets (Orono and Bangor) and native plant sales, she is a freelance writer of gardening articles which appear in the Maine Organic Farmers & Gardener and an avid photographer whose main subjects are native plants and pollinators. She travels throughout Maine speaking and presenting workshops on gardening topics to a variety of audiences. Vazquez is Spanish/English bi-lingual, of Puerto Rican descent and has lived in Maine since 1989.

Amanda Blake Soule withdrew from the 2024 board slate for personal reasons but hopes to join the board in the future.

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