About
Mission
North Coast Food Web (NCFW) is an Astoria, Oregon based nonprofit working to cultivate a resilient and equitable food system by supporting producers and improving access to local food.
Vision
The North Coast Food Web envisions a community that is home to a diverse and thriving group of farmers, fishers, foragers and value added food producers. Fresh, local food is accessible for all of us, regardless of who we are, our financial means and our cultural backgrounds. Local food is a pillar of our regional economy and culture, and is a visible contributor to our ecological and economic resilience.
Much of the early work was building relationships within the community including ones with volunteers, schools, families, Oregon Food Bank and its local subsidiary, Clatsop Community Action Regional Food Bank, OSU Extension, local governments, and other non-profit groups. These collaborations helped us educate and engage children, families, and communities by building the skills to grow food, increase access to local agriculture, develop cooking and nutrition skills and encourage citizen involvement in the development of a healthy food system. NCFW did a variety of types of programs for years, often focused on education. We helped start the River People Farmers Market, in order to ensure that folks using SNAP benefits were able to access fresh, local produce.
We also began working directly with farmers and small food businesses just starting out, opening our first business incubation program in 2019 at our location on 18th street, and providing commercial kitchen access to new businesses. When Covid 19 hit, we pivoted to a year-round online farmers market, which is one of our core programs today. We have a steadily growing commitment to food access, reflected in our multi-part Food Access Initiative.
Justice
We define justice as a system in which equity is the norm. We work in pursuit of justice by acknowledging and dismantling existing racial and class barriers to equitable food access and food production in our community. We value people over profits, and center our work on the needs of vulnerable populations, including low-income consumers and food producers, people of color, and immigrants and refugees.
Community
We understand our community is part of an intricate food system, made up of social, economic, political and ecological systems. We are embedded and invested in our local community, and celebrate the web of connection that growing, making, and sharing food provides. We support farmers and food businesses that strengthen our community’s well being. We create opportunities for all community members to access and engage with this local food. We understand that in doing so, we also strengthen our resilience and ability to thrive.
Nourishment
We believe that access to good food is a basic human right. We provide nourishment:
• To individuals through access to good food
• To our local food system through supporting local food businesses to grow and thrive
• To our community through dynamic local partnerships
• To surroundings through a commitment to land stewardship and resiliency
Responsiveness
We are active listeners and respond to the real needs expressed by our community. We practice transparency about who we are, what we do, and what motivates us. When we make mistakes, we are both clear and responsive in our corrections.
Jesse Jones
Executive Director
Jesse grew up in a mill town an hour from Astoria, where she would visit with her family and load shrimp shells onto a flatbed truck to sow into a large vegetable garden at home. Finding and cooking with locally grown and produced food, and meeting the makers and growers, has been a lifelong joy. Before joining the Food Web, water was a thread in her work which included restoring salmon habitat in state and private forests, coordinating riparian conservation with landowners including farmers and ranchers, managing community science projects along the Oregon coast, creating art and education opportunities for K-12 students on the beach, and building sculptures from marine debris. She loves to read, hike, kayak, think big, support her local community and incorporate music into everything.
.png)
Twila Pierson
Market & Food Access Manager
Twila Pierson joined the North Coast Food Web team in 2022, bringing a wealth of expertise in food systems to her role as Market and Food Access Manager. Twila feeds people, it’s just what she does. Passionate about facilitating community access to local food, Twila collaborates closely with local producers at every stage of their businesses, to enhance local food accessibility. Her enthusiasm for this mission is matched by her love for all things culinary. Twila is a self proclaimed sauce aficionado. Her friends say her magic trick is that she can create a meal out of whatever is on hand, when there is “nothing in the kitchen to eat”. When she’s not working, she enjoys exploring the outdoors, foraging for delicious ingredients, and going on adventures with her dog, Gretel.
Ellie Dunklee
Communications & Administrative Assistant
Ellie brings a passion for diverse and local food systems and is eager to shorten the distance from farm-to-table in the community while supporting small farmers. She brings a wide breadth of experience to the team including calculating the environmental footprints of foods and beverages, organizing community events, making wine for independent vineyards, working with the local fishing community and more. Whether it’s experimenting with seasonal recipes, playing music with friends, organizing community events or learning how to be a better gardener, Ellie is ever striving to improve the connections people have with each other, the land, and the natural cycles of time.
Cristian Martinez
Market Coordinator
Cristian aims to create a welcoming environment for the local Spanish-Speaking community by breaking down the language barriers that currently exist in our local food systems. Through his Public Health degree from Oregon State University and previous internship experience - providing general nutritional education services to Tillamook families on behalf of the Oregon State University Extension Service office - he has developed a growing passion for supporting his local community that has since resonated closely with him. Also, if you didn’t already know, Cristian LOVES food and will gladly eat your fries while you’re not looking. He also loves tacos and is always looking for the best deal on tacos in town!
Shelby Meyers
Grant management and Data Coordinator
With a background in landscape architecture and as prior manager of Astoria Sunday Market, Shelby brings local experience in small business development, project management, and ecological planning to her role. She's thrilled that her experience can combine to support the resiliency of vibrant food systems on the north coast. She also loves to weave tapestries with fishing line, grow herbs, flowers, and veggies and eat homemade meals from all of the great cooks in her life.
Andy Catalano
Kitchen Network Coordinator
Andy started his professional life in food on an organic farm in Italy in 2005, so food has always been an expression of place. Having cultivated close relationships with local producers, combined with nearly 20 years in kitchens from Italy to New York to Portland to Astoria, Andy understands the complicated structural challenges of rebuilding a local food system. These days he is eager to offer support to local producers, and glad to be able to spend his work time near a kitchen, but not always in a kitchen! Off work, Andy cherishes time with his wonderful family and slow meandering hobbies like gardening and woodworking.
Andrew Morgan
President
Andrew joined the NCFW Board in 2023. His interest in food started when he became a vegetarian 20 years ago and started researching new recipes and ways to get better produce. Having been a member/volunteer of multiple food co-ops and CSAs over the years, he wanted to get more involved in supporting the food system on the north coast and reached out to NCFW. He loves how the organization thinks creatively to solve food systems problems affecting our community. In his spare time he enjoys surfing and backpacking.
Emily Reilly
Board member
Keith Hagan
Vice president
Keith joined the north Oregon coast community in 2021 and has been been serving on North Coast Food Web board of directors since March 2022. He comes from a health insurance background and as the longest serving board member, is a strong advocate for the Food Web in Astoria and throughout Clatsop county. He served as president of the board throughout 2024, is an excellent neighbor to all, and has a dog named Bob.
Nathan Phillips
Treasurer
Nathan began as a volunteer in the North Coast Online Farmers Market and later joined the board of directors as an expert in food service, processing, franchising, and hospitality. He works as a Subject Matter Expert for conversations involving food, wellness, hospitality and sourcing, and has filled senior leadership roles with Catalina Offshore Products, the Compass Group, Taos Ski Valley, and Bon Appétit, along with his private consulting firm PhillipStrategies. Nathan an avid skier, food and wine lover, and enjoys hiking and the outdoors.
Tara Olson
Secretary
Tara moved to the north Oregon coast in the summer of 2023 to run the coastal land program at Oregon Agricultural Trust. She has a background in food systems and agroecology. When she’s not working, you can likely find her cooking a tasty meal, baking bread, exploring the coast, or reading a book.
Roger Lindsley
Board Member
Roger has a background in managing both profit and non-profit organizations, grant application writing, and healthcare. He hitchhiked to Alaska as a youth where he fished and logged until he was run down by a bulk carrier while bringing a fishing vessel down from Ketchikan to Cathlamet. Commercial fishing and the local fishery markets are of great interest to him today. He looks forward to incorporating more local seafood into NCFW’s programming. He is currently a Columbia Memorial Hospital employee and a partner in a Woodworking company. He spends his free time camping and traveling.
Sarah Wykowski
Board member
Community Collaborations
We are part of a dynamic, multi-state network of organizations, businesses and agencies, all aligned with the goal of sharing resources and best practices, and collective problem solving. These partnerships help keep our work fresh and solidly grounded in real needs of both producers and consumers in the food system. We have current active collaboration with:
Friends of Family Farmers
Astoria Sunday Market
Black Food Sovereignty Coalition
Heritage Museum
Astoria Food Co-op
Food Roots
CCA
Oregon Food Bank
Oregon Community Food Systems Network
CHART
Clatskanie Food Hub
Funding Partners
As a nonprofit organization committed to keeping our programs accessible, we rely on our funding partners. We are immensely grateful to our current funding partners:
Business Oregon
USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program
Pacific Power
Capital Assistance for Local Farmers (CALF) Award via Friends of Family Farmers
Oregon Coast Visitors Association
Oregon Community Foundation
City of Astoria
Clatsop County
City of Cannon Beach
Oregon Community Food Systems Network
Oregon Farmers Market Association
Roundhouse Foundation
Oregon Food Bank
ColPac CCO
USDA
We incorporated the deeper meaning of some of that work into our organizational Strategy Screens, which help guide our decision-making (everything from hiring and HR policies and practices, to new programs decisions). We also moved quickly into action once we had those grounding values.
What follows is a status report for our community of what we have in place and how we are acting on our equity and justice values:
1) Values
Our revised organizational values in our 2023-2028 Strategic Plan are as follows:
North Coast Food Web believes that cultivating a resilient and just food system is long-term, complex work. We celebrate our capacity to grow and adapt to the evolving environmental and economic crises of our community and our world. Our work is grounded in and guided by our values, which are outlined below.
Justice
We define justice as a system in which equity is the norm. We work in pursuit of justice by acknowledging and dismantling existing racial and class barriers to equitable food access and food production in our community. We value people over profits, and center our work on the needs of vulnerable populations, including low-income consumers and food producers, people of color, and immigrants and refugees.
Community
We understand our community is part of an intricate food system, made up of social, economic, political and ecological systems. We are embedded and invested in our local community, and celebrate the web of connection that growing, making, and sharing food provides. We support farmers and food businesses that strengthen our community’s well being. We create opportunities for all community members to access and engage with this local food. We understand that in doing so, we also strengthen our resilience and ability to thrive.
Nourishment
We believe that access to good food is a basic human right. We provide nourishment:
• To individuals through access to good food
• To our local food system through supporting local food businesses to grow and thrive
• To our community through dynamic local partnerships
• To surroundings through a commitment to land stewardship and resiliency
Responsiveness
We are active listeners and respond to the real needs expressed by our community. We practice transparency about who we are, what we do, and what motivates us. When we make mistakes, we are both clear and responsive in our corrections.
2) FOOD ACCESS
In 2023, we undertook a multi-part project focused on food access, including deepening our Spanish language capacity as a full staff and translating our materials into Spanish; a free food box initiative funded by Oregon Food Bank; and low-income resident outreach. We also continue to accept SNAP, FDNP and Double Up Food Bucks, allowing people who receive government assistance to use our market and access fresh and healthy food. This work continues in 2024.
3) Internal Practices
We have taken significant steps as an organization to embody equity and justice within our staff. Raising wages to be livable and fair, adding benefits, and explicitly valuing different life experiences in hiring processes are some of the more visible aspects of these changes. Less apparent are changes to organizational culture, in alignment with dismantling white supremacy and internalized capitalism.
