Get to know the Food Council Staff

Andrea Lanctot
Food Program Director

Iya Mahan
Food Program Manager

Andrea has spent her entire life in gardens and knows that the greatest thing you can do for your health is eating local, fresh food. She believes every one should have access to the knowledge on how to grow, harvest, gather, and obtain cultural appropriate, healthy food. Her love of plants and being outside has infused her passion for sustainable agriculture, permaculture, and hands-on experiential education. She has worked at 3 plant nurseries, a small organic vegetable farm, lived and worked on a permaculture homestead in the Klamath mountains, worked as a community educator for the University of California Cooperative Extension farm advisor in Humboldt, and has recently started her own small plant nursery here in Del Norte. While at Humboldt State University, she completed a  BS in Environmental Science with a concentration in Sustainable Agriculture & Community Organizing and was a co-director for the Campus Center for Appropriate Technology, a live in demonstration house for sustainable living. She has organized and led over a 100 workshops, events, & classes in regenerative agriculture and living.  Her desire to restore our ecological habitats and live more lightly on the earth fuels her drive to keep learning and sharing her knowledge with others. A permaculture designer for 10 years, she has been an active member of the Humboldt Permaculture Guild, help design and teach a permaculture design course through Klamath Knot Permaculture, and has supported the emergence of the Wild Rivers Permaculture Guild. 

Iya Mahan has spent over 15 years in Northern California and Southern Oregon enjoying this region's unique environment.  She is an Alumni of Cal Poly Humboldt in 2010, with a degree in Environmental Science.  She comes to the Community Food Council with a passion for connecting people to their food, and goals of increasing local food security, production and distribution.
Mahan loves living in Crescent City, hiking, gardening, and enjoying the outdoors with her family.  She grew up in San Luis Obispo County, where she developed an appreciation for the ocean and being outside.  Most recently she has taught garden education for K-12 students, facilitated workshops to get families outside together, and worked in the food service industry for over 20 years. 

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Marina MacNeill
Food Operations Manger

Born and raised in southern California, Marina grew up eating healthy simple foods from her family’s gardens. Some of her favorite memories were picking apricots and pecans from the trees in the backyard. She moved up here in 2012 and has been in love with the beach and redwoods ever since. Marina spends her free time getting her hands dirty in the community garden with her 4-year-old daughter. She also enjoys naturally dyeing yarn with foraged plants from our beautiful diverse environment in Del Norte County.  Marina worked for the local health food store for the past several years and is excited to bring her knowledge and passion for locally sourced foods to the many projects of the Community Food Council. ​

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Angela Gray
​​Food Forest Manager

Angela Gray comes to the Community Food Council with a deep passion for supporting community access to eating well. Angela has had the pleasure of calling Del Norte home for the last 6 years and relocated to the area with her daughter in search of a slower pace and a deeper connection to place. When she's not in the dirt or the kitchen you can find Angela exploring our beautiful trails, parks and beaches with her daughter and pups or participating in our local Wild Rivers Permaculture Guild. As an avid plant lover, home cook and gardner she knows that healthy food can also be delicious. Angela found her way to the garden along a meandering path driven by a desire to source the best ingredients. Let thy food be thy medicine!  Angela's background as a home gardener, landscaper, herbalist and farmer give her a wide scope of experience. The curiosity, delight, and wonder at the nutrition and medicine inside each plant (even plants considered weeds!) has infused her passion for living and working closely with nature. The empowerment experienced from providing your own nourishment is so valuable to Angela that it has become her lifelong goal to share this empowerment with others. As the new Food Forest Program Manager Angela hopes to ignite the passion for growing food for our next generation of healthy eaters here in Del Norte.​

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Meredith Knowles
Strategic Initiatives & Grants Coordinator

​Meredith is the Strategic Initiatives and Grants Coordinator for the DNATL Food Council where she manages the coordination of our diverse set of grants and supports the staff as we grow into our big vision. At heart, she is a sustainable food systems advocate and community activator who supports the policies, systems, and environmental changes that promote resiliency, human dignity, and community health and well-being. Meredith is a returning food council staff member, after launching the food recovery program in 2019. Prior to her current role, she was a policy specialist at the Oregon Health Authority from 2021 - 2023, focusing on public health nutrition, physical activity, active transportation, and food systems, where her work included supporting Oregon's public health strategic plan, which aims to eliminate health inequities by addressing the root social, environment, and institutional drivers of health. She is passionate about fostering cross-sector relationships and collaborations; complex issues require us all to work together. As a fervent systems-level thinker, Meredith understands that sustainable food systems are key in ensuring good food is accessible to all.

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Melanie Cross
School Gardens Coordinator

​Melanie Cross, Chilean journalist, came back to the US in 2006 in search for a meaningful path in her journalism career. After working with different media and production companies, she decided to concentrate her efforts towards the care of nature. Leaving behind the entertainment world, she has dedicated this past decade to creating connections between childhood and our natural environment, highlighting the benefits and importance of this exchange in our development as humans. It is her honor to be part of the Community Food Council as the School Garden Coordinator, where she can directly work with children in their understanding of plants, food, and farming, and bring the community's attention to the many benefits of healthy food production.

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Tera Nations
Mobile Distributions Coordinator

​Tera has been helping our team for a little while now, and promoted to mobile distribution coordinator in March of 2023.

​Bio Coming Soon! (?)