Bio:

SARAH KEYES brings years of project management, policy, and advocacy experience to Farm to Cafeteria Canada, where she is helping create a School Food and Food Education Training Hub to help build educators’ capacity to teach about food and food systems. As the Ontario Lead at the Coalition for Healthy School Food, she’s also working to strengthen school food programs in Ontario and Canada. With a Master’s in Environmental Studies and a background in running hands-on, community-based food education programs for children, youth and adults, Sarah loves working with partners across the country towards positive social and food systems change. 

DR. ALICIA MARTIN is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Dalhousie University working with the Common Ground Network. She studies food systems, food security, and food literacy, promoting sustainability through an interdisciplinary lens. Alicia is interested in how a broadly conceptualized food literacy can be more holistically incorporated into education and school food programming. She has a PhD in Geography from the University of Guelph and a Master of Arts in Political Science with a Specialization in Environmental Sustainability from the University of Ottawa.

JORDAN SOKMENOGLU is a Certified Food and Nutrition Manager with the Saskatoon Public School Division, where she leads school‑based food service operations and the development of culturally responsive meal programs. She oversees the division’s universal hot lunch and snack program, guiding menu planning, procurement, logistics, staffing, and overall food service management. Jordan’s work is grounded in food literacy, equity, and student well‑being, and she advocates for the vital role of Nutrition Managers in school food systems. With a strong focus on mentorship and team development, she builds capacity to ensure school food programs are nourishing, efficient, resilient, and rooted in best practice

MATTHEW KEMSHAW is one of the founders and current Executive Director of Flourish! School Food Society. He has worked for over twenty years supporting school food program development through academic research and not-for-profit roles, including ten years working in management positions in the not-for-profit sector. Matthew holds a BA in Political Science and Environmental Studies and an MA in Environmental Education and Communication. He is a committed father and caretaker of the land. His family settled on southern Vancouver Island three generations ago and he continues to live in the unceded territories of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.

KAREN HUTCHINSON works at the intersection of the local food system and food literacy in Caledon and Headwaters Region. She works on finding innovative ways to transition the local food system while educating the next generation of ‘environmental eaters. Many days this is very hands-on work including managing the Albion Hills Community Farm, teaching youth at the farm or in their schools or helping organize school gardens and edible education workshops. This work is to engage and educate the local community about food and farming.