Minnesota Food Association is overseen by a community Board of Directors. The Board aims to represent the broad spectrum of the food system; from farmers and chefs to educators, policy makers and administrators.

Minnesota Food Association
Board of Directors as of January 2013

Minnesota Food Association is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors. The Board aims to represent the broad spectrum of the food system; from farmers and chefs to educators, policy makers and administrators.

Joel Barker (Chair)
Joel is a philanthropic advisor who works in development and communications. He is President of Backpack Tactics LLC.

Bjorn Gangeness
Bjorn has an M.S. in Environmental Policy with a minor in Sustainable Agriculture. He works in Regulatory Affairs for Pace Analytical Services, Inc. in St. Paul, MN.

Linda Halley (Vice-Chair)
Linda enjoys being an author and educator on wide ranging farm topics, but first and foremost she is a certified organic farmer. Currently she manages Gardens of Eagan, a 100 acre vegetable farm, and is the President of the Board of The Organic Field School, a non-profit developing educated food citizens and organic farmers.

William (Bill) Hunt
Bill is the retired State Conservationist for the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Minnesota. He has over 35 years of experience in the USDA.

Jed Norgaarden
Jed is a management consultant with Genoa Business Advisors where he provides strategy and counsel to small and mid-size firms.  He has held sr. management roles in companies to grow business and transform performance.  He also has agribusiness experience from Cargill and has worked on Wall Street.  Jed's first job was picking vegetables on a Minnesota farm.

Beth Salzl (Secretary)
Beth works in IT healthcare.  She has an extensive background with nonprofits and serves on several Boards.  She has worked with many nonprofits in obtaining their 501C3 status and has an extensive background in charitable fundraising.

Daniel Tilsen
Dan is an Independent Consultant in Civil Engineering. He specializes in natural resource and recreational land planning design and construction projects from large to small.

Rachel Traut (Treasurer)
Rachel works in Logistics at General Mills supporting Progresso Soup.  She also serves on a volunteer group within General Mills working on a corn-soy extrusion project in Malawi Africa in conjunction with the World Food Program.  She was raised on a cash crop farm in Central MN and still gets back on the weekends to help with farm operations.

For information about joining the Board of Directors, please contact Glen Hill, Executive Director, at 651-433-3676, ext 11.