South Jersey Famers’ Equity and Sustainability Team (SJ FEAST)
Funded by a 2024 USDA Regional Food System Partnership planning grant to Pinelands Alliance, in partnership with NJ Food Democracy Collaborative, SJ FEAST aims to expand market access and opportunities for South Jersey Farmers. Together with farmers in the region, project managers from Pinelands Alliance and NJ Food Democracy Collaborative are creating a marketing and promotion program for the SJ agricultural sector and developing aggregation strategies and new markets for 2026.
From fall 2025 to winter 2026, stakeholders in the region to worked together as an “AgriCluster” to develop work plans for their highest priorities, identified by them using the ACRE facilitation process. Learn more about those priorities below. Learn about the ACRE process for AgriClusters, here.
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Join SJ FEAST
Curious to learn more or want to join this effort?
Email Jonathan Wetstein at Pinelands Alliance to learn about the SJ FEAST Steering Committee and other ways to get involved. -
Working Groups
In 2025 and early 2026, farmers and food system stakeholders across SJ came together in a series of meetings and workshops to determine the highest priority needs and most impactful ways that they could work together. Those are:
1. Increase access to co-packing and expand and improve value-added products made from their harvests.2. Sharing key resources, services, and equipment to reduce burden and costs on individual farms.
3. A regional branding and marketing campaign to increase customer demand for products grown and raised in South Jersey and increase foot-traffic to farms and farmers markets in the region.
4. Supporting small producers in the region with access to wholesale and institutional markets, including facilitating aggregation across farms in the region.Each of these priorities has a work plan developed by the group. Small working groups consisting of farmers and food system stakeholders in SJ formed to keep driving them forward. Team members from Pinelands Alliance are leading each working group.
“Ask an Expert” Speakers Series
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In fall 2025, SJ FEAST held an online learning series featuring conversations and Q&A with experts in multiple aspects of the food system. The topics for these were informed by the SJ FEAST Steering Committee members (see below) during their Summer 2025 meeting held at Walkingbird Farm.
Each session was open to all South Jersey farmers and local food system stakeholders.
You can find recordings of these sessions below.
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Aggregating From Other Local Farmers
James Klett, Fairgrown Farms
Tuesday, August 26th from 5 - 6:15 PM
Recording: https://youtu.be/kCHDlHNN7UY
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Commercial Kitchen/Co-Packing/Value-Added Products
NOFA-NJ & Coddiwomple Canning Co.
Monday, September 22nd from 6 - 7:15 PM
Recording: https://youtu.be/ID7O-Z2VIbw
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Creating a Nonprofit Food Hub
The Cooperative Market & Urban Agriculture Cooperative
Wednesday, October 1st from 5:30 - 6:45 PM
Recording: https://youtu.be/DS7-Hr0_fX4
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The Common Market, Mid-Atlantic Region
Warren DeShields, The Common Market, Mid-Atlantic Region
Monday, October 13, 2025
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Red Tomato Food Hub
Angel Mendez, Founder, CEO
Wednesday, October 15 from 6 - 7:30 PM
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Beyond a Broker: A Conversation with Foodshed.io
Beyond a Broker: A Conversation with Foodshed.io
Thursday, October 23rd, 5:30 pm - 7 pm
Recording: https://youtu.be/Cgm0z81iFyg
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Route 9 Cooperative & the Craft Miller's Guild
Networking with Local Nuts & Grains: Appalachian Staple Foods Collaborative (ASFC), Route 9 Cooperative & the Craft Miller's Guild.
Tuesday, October 28, 5 - 6:15 PM
Recording not available.
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Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Nolan Lewin, Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Thursday, November 6, from 6 - 7:30 PM
Recording: https://youtu.be/vK1zK-PcWoU
Meet the Steering Committee
Maggie Belskis
Maggie Belskis is the Media and Mission Engagement Coordinator at Reed’s Farm, where she helps lead campaigns, grant projects, and brand storytelling. With a background in corporate marketing and a love for regenerative agriculture, she brings both professional experience and her passion for homesteading to SJ FEAST.
Melanie Ganzman
Melanie is the co-owner of Fluffy Farms and the South Jersey Farm Collective CSA, where she helps connect local farms to the community while also growing no-spray produce, baking freshly milled sourdough, and raising 50 goats with regenerative practices. She’s deeply committed to strengthening the local food system and making it easier for families to enjoy the harvests South Jersey has to offer. Melanie is also the current Board President of NOFA-NJ.
Links: Www.fluffyfarms.com; Instagram: fluffy.farms ; email: fluffyfacefarms@gmail.com.
Marieann Harp
Marie owns and operates Working Dog Farms in Galloway, New Jersey with her husband, Ryan. Marie most cherishes the rewards of the harvest, the heartfelt connections and shared memories with community members and contributing to a stronger, local community nourished by clean food.
Links: www.facebook.com/workingdogfarms; Instagram: workingdogfarms
Ben Topiel
Ben Topiel is a Project Manager with Virtua Health’s Eat Well programs, which include a Mobile Farmers Market, Mobile Grocery Store, and Food Farmacy. Through these food-is-medicine programs, Eat Well empowers communities to thrive by purchasing locally grown food and providing it for free or low cost in under-resourced neighborhoods.
Link: https://www.virtua.org/about/community-programs/eat-well
Jonathan Wetstein
Jonathan Wetstein is the Sustainable Food Systems Advocate for the Pinelands Alliance (PPA) and founder of Roots to Prevention (RTP). RTP, a six-year-old cross-sector collaboration originally based in Camden, NJ, is now part of PPA’s social equity programs. The initiative helps create economic opportunities in underserved urban communities by supporting hyper-local growers and connecting their produce to institutional buyers such as hospitals and to neighborhood farm stands. A graduate of Penn State’s Community and Economic Development program, Jonathan has worked with non-profits on food system initiatives that connect Camden residents to healthy food and income opportunities since 2011.
Additional SJ FEAST Steering Committee Members are:
Hannah Conner & Joey Soto, Ramblin’ Sol Farm
Jennifer LaMonaca, Walkingbird Farm, President of Atlantic County Board of Agriculture
Kyle Smith Poultry
Jeff Tober, Rancocas Creek Farm
Kathia Ramirez, COMITE DE APOYO A LOS TRABAJADORES AGRICOLAS FARMWORKERS SUPPORT COMMITTEE (C.A.T.A.)
Kelvin Wagner, Roots to Prevention and Pinelands Alliance
Rachel Wilson, Wild Heart Farm and NJ FDC
SJ FEAST MEMBERS & PARTICIPANTS RESOURCE HUB
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Date for SJ FEAST 2026 Pre-Season Meeting Coming Soon
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What is ACRE?
Food supply chain/Food system Technical Assistance (T.A.) provider search
Overview of Different Models for Farmer/Grower Collectives and Cooperatives
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