Staff
Art Friedrich, Executive Director
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A dedicated food activist on many fronts, Art believes food unites us across all cultures and backgrounds. He sees his passion for healthy food as a spiritual matter as well as a basic human right and need. He builds coalitions with diverse groups that show dedication to improving our health landscape. He recognizes the privilege and opportunity provided his race and gender as well as the responsibility to use that to create a more just system for all.
Art has run small food businesses, and has helped run sustainable farms with his mother in New Hampshire and his sisters in Massachusetts. He met founder Melissa Contreras (now Markham) in 2009 and helped launch her idea into a full fledged grassroots organization. Art also owns and manages Greenthumb Popcorn, an organic vegan supersnack sold throughout the Whole Foods Florida region and in many independent retailers nationwide. |
Chantelle Sookram, Daily operations manager
Chantelle Sookram is a talented cook who is passionate about sustainable farming. She is extremely invested in bridging the divide between people and their food. Chantelle was born in Trinidad and migrated to West Orange, NJ at the age of 16. Upon completing high school she attended Johnson and Wales in North Miami, where she earned an Associate Degree in Culinary Arts. During her sophomore year she began working at BLT Steak under the mentorship of Chef Samuel Gorenstein, with whom she continued collaborating closely with on other culinary projects. Chantelle is also a cofounder of Love and Vegetables, a vegan pop-up dinner series hosted at the Earth ‘n Us Farm. This project brings together two of Chantelle’s biggest passions, culinary arts and fresh local food.
Now working for Urban Oasis Project, Chantelle is literally bringing the food to the people via Friday farm pick ups. You can also find her at most markets, and as the chef coordinating and cooking for our Farmers Direct Dinners. She also runs our GIVE Garden building program.
Now working for Urban Oasis Project, Chantelle is literally bringing the food to the people via Friday farm pick ups. You can also find her at most markets, and as the chef coordinating and cooking for our Farmers Direct Dinners. She also runs our GIVE Garden building program.
Ashley Varela, manager of Project Maracuya
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Ashley started working with us at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic to start our Food Justice Veggie Box program, now known as Project Maracuya. Through this program Ashley has been able to reach out to communities desperately in need of assistance and has been working hard to provide them with fresh and local produce every week, as well as cleaning supplies on a biweekly basis. She is a queer herbalist and community organizer who's passion is to bring people closer to the Earth. She started the Fairy Garden, a community garden in Little Haiti in response to climate change and gentrification, with the queer feminist abolitionist collective Fempower. She is currently studying for her MA in landscape architecture so she can further repair our relationship with the Earth and how we commune with her. |
Lisa Palley, Superstar volunteer market assistant
Lisa has been a volunteer for over five years with UOP, and helped build a local food movement long before as a member of Bee Heaven Farms CSA and others. She loves to see people come and shop, and always has cooking tips to share on what to do with fun vegetables.
Ms. Shirley, dedicated volunteer fruit pusher
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She needs no introduction, the famous Ms. Shirley knows everyone by name and she really does know exactly when the last time it was you came by and did your grocery shopping with us. She'll always get you to try at least one thing you've never seen before!
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Your name here ___________ Sign up to volunteer!
Jessica Zendell, Market Assistant
In December of 2017, this star of our team passed away unexpectedly. We miss her dearly and all the love and joy and laughter she brought to us for years.
Jessica ate vegan and loved exploring new foods and amazing tastes from our diverse south florida produce! She always was smiling and happy, no matter what the situation was that she was facing- rain up to her knees, sleepless nights or super long hot days of working.
Jessica ate vegan and loved exploring new foods and amazing tastes from our diverse south florida produce! She always was smiling and happy, no matter what the situation was that she was facing- rain up to her knees, sleepless nights or super long hot days of working.
Board of Directors
Art Friedrich- above
Vivien Dorsey
Joanne Hennesey
YOU can join us! Send us an email introduction!
Past members of the Board of Directors:
Melissa Contreras, Founder
Melissa's life has had many twists and turns, and the one constant has always been gardening. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from Florida International University, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations, Geography minor. The relationships between people, land, and food have been a major interest. She is author of Organic Methods for Vegetable Gardening in Florida, along with Ginny Stibolt, published by University Press of Florida in 2013. Contreras Served as a USAID volunteer on an organic farm in the cool, coffee-growing mountains of northern Nicaragua, where she was a consultant for its foray into eco-agritourism while in graduate school working toward a Master's degree in Sustainable Tourism Planning and Development.
She has attended "Community Food Systems from the Ground Up" workshops at Growing Power Inc. Contreras is also an alumnus of The Center for Whole Communities. She studied organic gardening at Miami Dade College with organic farmer Andres Mejides, Miami's most experienced organic farmer (50 years in our tropical climate). Melissa is a former employee of Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden, where she continues to teach teaches gardening classes in the Adult Education Dept. She is a Master Gardener volunteer, certified through University of Florida/Miami-Dade County Cooperative Extension Service. She takes care of her own beautiful and productive little urban homestead, with 6 vegetable beds, fruit trees, and lots of edible landscaping.
Stephen D. Pearson, Esq.
Ron Mossman, Ph.D.
Nancy Maidique. M.P.H.
Yvrose Valdez
Yuhfen Lin, Ph.D.
Antonio Guadamuz
Julie Petrie
Roger Dominguez
Collin Davis
Diana Santana
Brett Phillips
Thi Squire
Mirene Brooks
Karen Picciano
Grey Read
Kaydrianne Young
Clay Naughton, Esq.
Julia Onnie-Hays
Loretta Tarpin
Jeannie Necessary
Racheal Biderman
Joanne Hennesey
Interested in joining the Board of Directors? We'd love to have you!
Contact Art Friedrich at art@urbanoasisproject.org for more information.