Awardee
Project
Working Farmland Partnership (WFP)
Description
The Working Farmland Partnership (WFP) is a formal collaboration among agriculture‐focused agencies working to establish a comprehensive farmland access program for King County. In 2018, core work involved designing the systems and partnership structure to support the collaborative model. In 2019, core work includes helping landowners ready underutilized farmland for production, supporting new and beginning farmers in their unique journeys to establish/expand successful farm businesses, facilitating lasting matches, and developing a business plan to support the partnership at scale for the long term. WFP entities work closely with participants to understand unique barriers to advancing goals and making matches. They assemble project teams offering tailored technical assistance, training, and access to cost‐sharing resources to support participants and move matches forward.
In 2020, in addition to continuing the work of supporting participants toward the ultimate goal of facilitating matches to bring more land into production, the WFP will implement recommendations of the business plan currently in development for scalable, sustainable expansion. Also, this work will advance development of two additional strategies necessary to facilitate long‐term success of the comprehensive land access program: a replicable, alternative land tenure model, and a new framework for succession planning.
Senior Program Manager, Regional Food Systems
O: 425-282-1958 – C: 425-529-4801
Mary joined KCD in late 2015 and currently serves as Senior Manager for the Regional Food System Program. Mary came to KCD from Cascade Harvest Coalition, a non-profit which she founded and directed since 1999. Mary brings more than three decades of passion, experience and expertise in natural resource management, agricultural economics, and food system development. Mary coordinates the KCD Regional Food System Program, including Strategic Initiatives and Food System Grants, with the goals of making an enduring contribution toward strengthening King County’s food economy. Mary’s education includes a BS in Political Economy of Natural Resources from the University of California, Berkeley, and an MS in Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics from Montana State University, Bozeman. Outside of work, Mary enjoys hiking the wilds of the Pacific Northwest with her yellow lab, Libby, and photography.