FOR SHE’S A JOLLY GOOD “FELLOW”

Congratulations and best wishes to the co-founder of this blog, Kirsten Gerbatsch, for her appointment as the “Fellow,” or statewide team leader, of FoodCorps in the State of Montana!

For the last two years, Kirsten served as an outstanding FoodCorps service member in the Grand Traverse region of Michigan, working extensively with the Michigan Land Institute.  In that time, she led the building and revitalizing of six school gardens, using these as “outdoor classrooms” and teaching both production of nutritious food and hands-on cooking to K-12 students. I’m one of many in our area for whom Kirsten will always be a friend, and to whom we’re ever so grateful for her inspiring leadership; skilled, patient teaching; and untiring hard work.  I once wrote of Kirsten, paraphrasing Abraham Lincoln: “A woman never stands so tall as when she stoops to help a child.”  She’s a bright, dedicated future leader of national significance in the areas of food and agricultural policy.  One might rightly say that our loss is Montana’s gain—true, but with two new FoodCorps members now building on Kirsten’s achievements under the superb leadership of Daniel Marbury, Kirsten’s outstanding co-worker for the last two years and now deservedly Michigan’s own new FoodCorps Fellow, Northern Lower Michigan stands ever more at the forefront of food education for health and sustainability.