Who We Are

Our Mission

Our mission is to build an informed and engaged community committed to finding sustainable solutions to alleviate hunger, reclaim and repurpose waste and promote the health and well-being of all.

Core Values of ProduceGood

Reciprocity and trust – Embrace and exemplify mutual dependence, including but not limited to, the exchange or giving of human capital such as time, skills, goods, services and experience.

Respect and inclusion – Seek to identify and mobilize the strengths and capabilities of diverse members of the Community to ensure that everyone has a means to give and that valuable resources are consumed. Respond to seasonal changes in the year to keep serving communities such as families and children who may lose access to fresh produce when school is not in session.

Collaboration and innovation – Partner with people and organizations to drive change through mutually beneficial actions and a desire for continuous community and organizational improvements, including but not limited to, underserved communities/vulnerable populations, low-income and episodically homeless households, domestic violence (DV) victims, seniors, families with children, and military households.

Sustainability & passion – Evolve as necessary for return on investment and continuity of mission with a demonstrated focus on activities to promote community well-being
There is an expectation that staff and those serving as Board/Advisory Members, volunteers, growers and/or other, operate with mutual respect and inclusivity as described. No person is expected to tolerate abuse or disrespect from others associated in any capacity with PG.

History

When Nita Kurmins Gilson walked her neighborhood in 2010 and saw all the fruit from her neighbors trees on the ground, she saw a problem. But even with friends and family helping to glean this excess and take it to the local food bank, the problem was too complex to solve alone. When Mother and Daughter Jerilyn and Alexandra White were introduced to Nita through a mutual friend in 2014, Alex saw it as an opportunity to build a partnership and create lasting change. Jeri was focused on building community for aging adults, Alex was passionate about access to whole food for all and Nita was intent on reducing food waste. Together, these three determined women founded ProduceGood, which has become the largest and most active gleaning organization in San Diego County.

What began with one feeding partner, Feeding America, now exceeds 100 feeding partners across San Diego County. Our handful of citrus tree growers and volunteers has grown to hundreds of backyard growers and farmers and thousands of volunteers.

Our mission to reduce food waste and hunger by connecting surplus produce to food insecurity in local communities remains grassroots in nature, but our impact continues to grow throughout the county. In addition to our flagship backyard gleaning program, CropSwap, we coordinate thousands of volunteers through our Market Share program who glean excess mixed produce from farms, farmers markets and grocery stores to benefit those who need it most.

Our Team

Nita Kurmins Gilson

Co-Executive Director (Programs & Outreach), Co-founder

In 2009, Nita launched a grassroots program called “CropSwap” with the support of friends and volunteers (many of whom are still with ProduceGood today). In the beginning, they picked excess citrus from neighborhood trees for provision to the North County Food Bank. Through Nita’s determination, the distribution model was later expanded through a partnership with Feeding San Diego.
After five years leading CropSwap while still working as a graphic artist, Nita took the idea to the next level. In 2014, she teamed up with Jeri and Alex, and the three San Diego women crafted a shared vision for the future as partners and founded ProduceGood to continue with CropSwap activities while expanding new produce recovery programs to reduce waste and hunger.
Today, Nita drives ProduceGood Programs & Outreach as Co-director of the organization in partnership with Alex. She now works full-time as an agent of change in San Diego County, lending her experience to collaboration as part of the food sustainability movement and representing ProduceGood’s mission with partner organizations and other local, national, and international groups.
Nita has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Washington.

Alexandra White

Co-Executive Director (Strategy & Development), Co-founder

Alex brings critical skills to ProduceGood based on nine years developing global training programs for technology companies, four years living in West Africa (as a Peace Corps Volunteer and Program Manager for a multi-national USAID project) and four years as a secondary educator. Her work managing restaurants and a local community food cooperative drive her interest in limiting food waste and ensuring equitable access to whole food for all.
In 2014, Alex incubated the ProduceGood concept and worked with Nita and Jeri to incorporate and establish the organization as a 501(c)(3) in 2015. Her unique experiences and bent toward problem-solving help her address the challenges of capacity in her efforts to grow and lead ProduceGood’s organizational development, sustainability, and governance.
Responsibly farmed and harvested foods are a priority for Alex, influencing her consumer choices and personal interests. Today, Alex drives Strategy & Finance as Co-director of the organization in partnership with Nita. She is focused on growing opportunities to upcycle surplus produce through prosperous strategic partnerships that sustain a strong infrastructure for produce rescue, transport, and provision.
Alex has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Colorado.

**Mackenzie Anderson**
*Community Orchard Program Lead*

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Mackenzie graduated from Oregon State University receiving a Bachelor’s in Social Science with a focus on community development. After volunteering locally and abroad on sustainable development projects she decided to bring her passion for social change to AmeriCorps. She served two years with the San Diego Youth Services Volunteer Engagement department supporting volunteer recruitment and capacity building.
Joining the ProduceGood team, Mackenzie brings a passion for environmental justice, equity and empowerment. She is excited to work alongside volunteers and community partners to ensure vulnerable folks in San Diego have access to nutritious foods.

**Clare Cornelius**
*Community Orchard Engagement Lead*

Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, Clare graduated from Pepperdine University with a bachelor's degree in Global Politics and Sustainability. During college, Clare’s passion for workers’ rights and zero waste compelled her to start an ethical swimsuit brand using fabric made from repolymerized discarded fishing nets. She also founded a surfing and ocean conservation club on campus in order to build community and encourage dialogue among her peers.
Clare believes in food access as a human right and brings a passion for closed-loop systems to ProduceGood. As Community Engagement Lead, Clare supports event planning, volunteer engagement, receiving agency relations, and communications.

Kiyonna moved to San Diego in 2014 after growing up in a small town in Northern Colorado. She has a MA in Peace and Justice where she focused on environmental and food justice, and a BS in Business Management. Her work experience has been predominantly in higher education administration, which has fueled her passion to address the issue of food waste. In her most recent position at the University of San Diego, she worked to establish a food recovery system for students to benefit from leftover food from catered events.
In her spare time, she likes to be active and outside. You can find Kiyonna running, hiking, snowboarding, or camping.

**Kristin King**
*Community Outreach Lead*

Kristin King grew up in the mountains near Mammoth Lakes, CA, where she developed a deep appreciation for the outdoors and protecting the environment. Her love for language began in high school, leading her to earn an MA in Translation from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, a BA in Spanish Language & Linguistic Studies from UC Santa Cruz, and a California teaching credential. With extensive experience as a translator, interpreter, and language teacher in both California and Spain, Kristin has always placed communication and relationship-building at the core of her work. Driven by a strong passion for connecting with and helping others, she is excited to bring her experience and values to ProduceGood.
In her free time, Kristin enjoys getting outside with her family. You can find her cycling, trail running, backcountry skiing, and surfing.

Board & Advisory

Claire is passionate about data, maximizing resources, and understanding root causes for long-term problem-solving. Alongside a career focused in the receivables industry, she also values community engagement, volunteering, and the outdoors. As a dedicated board member, Claire shapes organizations' vision to align with beneficiaries' needs, demonstrating her commitment to improving lives. Balancing her time, she cherishes moments with her supportive and understanding family. Beyond her board commitments, Claire actively volunteers and advocates for causes dear to her heart. Believing in collaboration and collective action, she strives for meaningful change. Claire joined ProduceGood's Board of Directors in 2020.

**Navjyot (Navi) Parmar**
*Board Vice- President*

Navi Singh Parmar is a Director at Prescient Healthcare Group. He earned his BA in religion with a minor in political science from Syracuse University and MPH in health management and policy from Drexel University. Before joining Prescient, Navi worked for more than eight years in healthcare management consulting at Deloitte. He is proficient in serving clients strategically and operationally across government programs like Medicare and Medicaid. He brings subject matter expertise on value-based care and population health strategy across the healthcare ecosystem. His specialty is bringing payers, providers and pharma together to improve the accessibility, quality and cost of care. At Prescient Healthcare Group, Navi helps clients solve strategic challenges across various therapy areas. His passions are supporting first generation communities through education, access to healthcare, and combating food insecurity.

Angela and her family have been volunteering with ProduceGood since they moved to San Diego in 2017. Angela is passionate about engaging with the local community and the environment, which she does through ProduceGood, organizing local shore dives, and cleaning up her local beach in La Jolla. She is currently the vice president of strategy, business development and the private label business for Integra LifeSciences, and is a local angel investor with NuFund (formerly known as Tech Coast Angels). She previously served on the audit committee as a board director for SeaSpine, headquartered in Carlsbad, CA. She has a BA in economics with honors from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ronald Eng is a science minded, data analyst with two core passions: helping people in need and reducing our environmental impact on the planet. Ronald was an international biotechnology business development executive before founding two successful companies in the special tea industry. Ronald has served on ProduceGood’s Board of Directors since 2017, including roles as Vice-President and Secretary.

**Steve Hollenbeck**
*President Emeritus*

Steve believes that the key to reducing food insecurity and waste lies in being more efficient in redistributing surpluses within our community. Sharing Produce Good’s vision and passion for building a sustainable upcycling process led him to become a volunteer in 2018. Throughout his career as a financial services executive, Steve primarily developed and managed sponsor relationships.

Morgan is a Community Relations Manager at San Diego Gas & Electric. In her role, she supports roughly 100 environmental nonprofit partners, connects employees with opportunities to give back through volunteerism and supports the company’s many sustainability initiatives. She is a San Diego native and life-long environmental enthusiast. She received degrees in Environmental Studies and Global Studies from UC Santa Barbara. Morgan has an environmental nonprofit background, having spent a decade working for I Love A Clean San Diego in various fundraising, marketing and volunteer management roles. Morgan has been a dedicated volunteer for many years and is excited about the opportunity to get more involved with ProduceGood. She and her husband live in Clairemont and spend their free time exploring the outdoors.

Matthew is a Charity and Business Specialist at GoFundMe. He helps charities and businesses use GoFundMe for their fundraising needs, and assists them with receiving their donations. He has a background working at non-profit organizations and tech companies. Prior to his current role at GoFundMe, Matthew worked at City Harvest, a food rescue organization in his hometown of New York City. He managed food donations and food donor relationships as part of the Food Sourcing team. Matthew received his Bachelor of Science in Physical Education from Syracuse University.

Yanira Alonso serves as the Food and Nutrition Program Manager at Community Resource Center, a non-profit organization located in Encinitas focused on creating paths to healthy food, stable homes and safe relationships.
An alumna of the University of California, San Diego, Yanira earned her Bachelor of Arts in Communications and Global Health and later became a certified Holistic Nutritionist. Yanira began her career in food policy and social justice and discovered an interest in food insecurity, particularly in at-risk populations.
Yanira’s current commitments focus on continually creating programs that bridge the gap between food waste diversion and increased recovery to feed food-insecure families and individuals in San Diego County. She is passionate about environmentalism and growing food for nourishment and whenever possible aims to educate on the importance of healthy and nutritious food for overall well-being.

Garth works for neighboring organization Coastal Roots Farm as their Post-Harvest and Distribution Manager. His work addresses and reduces food insecurity and ensures low-income, at-risk communities have equal and dignified access to locally grown, fresh, organic food, regardless of ability to pay. You are likely to find Garth on Sundays and Thursdays at the pay-what-you-can farm stand nerding out over veggies and recipes with his regular customers. Prior to joining Coastal Roots Farm, Garth served two years in the AmeriCorps Volunteer Infrastructure Project working with ProduceGood. There he worked to coordinate volunteers and lead programs directly addressing food waste and food insecurity in San Diego County. Garth is thrilled to be back with ProduceGood serving on the Board, and looks forward to deepening the organization's impact and its relationships in our community.

Casandra is self-driven with a passion for her family, community, and her work. As a bank manager for US Bank Casandra is able to enact her passion for helping people realize their financial goals while also helping US Bank employees realize their professional goals. She is dedicated to making a difference big or small. Casandra has been volunteering for several years with Producegood and is their biggest cheerleader amongst her peers at work. She has rounded up many volunteers over the years and continues to bring much needed attention to food insecurity in our own neighborhoods.

After graduation from the University of Wisconsin with a BS in Sociology, Maxine became a social worker in the L.A. welfare department for 2 years, where she gained an awareness of the needs of people, a world view of the 'social contract' which informs her to this day. Maxine has worked in the tourism industry, newspaper distribution, injection molding and finally owning a map and guidebook publishing company with her husband and continued to operate it for 11 years after his death. In 2019, she sold it to an associated cartographic company.
She has lived in Europe and traveled extensively. Now retired, she spends her time volunteering as a tutor for adults learning English, as a docent at the Gemological Institute and S.D.Botanic Gardens, in addition to being a volunteer and advisor on special projects at ProduceGood.

Dani was born in San Diego but grew up on the island of Oahu which cultivated a deep passion for local agriculture, food systems and culture of care for the land. She received her B.S. from University of Hawaii in Neuroscience and a dual Masters of Science in Sustainable Development and Agroecology from University of Sussex. She has done research in Australia and travelled Central America implementing gardens. Over ten years of learning and working in the grassroots and non profit sector in Hawaii has developed an intersectional perspective to her advocacy in the spaces of food sovereignty, agroecology, social justice and environmental justice. A passionate advocate for social equity, she is currently the Director of Programs and Sustainability at Plus Box working with local farms, food rescue organizations, and schools to provide the community and keiki with fresh, healthy food on a weekly basis. She also works closely with ProduceGood on many joint projects.

Stacey currently serves as a consultant at TGR Management Consulting, a boutique firm renowned for its expertise in technology transformation projects across the for-profit and non-profit sectors. She is a believer in asking questions like “Why?”, “Where do we want to end up?”, and “Who do we want to be?” when crafting strategy. Most importantly, she believes that all companies are service companies.
Stacey also hosts of "The Business of Non-Profits" podcast with the aim of sharing stories of non-profit operational excellence to others in the space. She holds a TSIA Support Center Manager certification and recently completed a course in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at the University of Colorado. Stacey holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Communication Management with an emphasis in Information Technology from the University of Southern California.

Jianie has been a professional, full-time REALTORS® since 2006, but with a primary focus on North San Diego County real estate and rental markets. She is committed to being there for my clients every step of the real estate experience and strive to be their “go-to” real estate consultant for life. She also enjoys being involved in our local community volunteering at her church, local charities and as an active committee member at the North San Diego County Association of REALTORS® Board. She has been a member of the board of Directors since 2017. She termed out in December 2023, but was asked to still emcee the Thursday morning meeting-- they like her energy!
She is a single mom of a wonderful 21 year old son. Her friends call her his "Momager" as she is always pushing him to develop his talent. She also volunteers at her church and is a member of The Saint John Altar Society.

Susan believes in helping empower people to work together to create change. As a volunteer with Citizens’ Climate Lobby, she advocates for climate change solutions by lobbying members of local and state government and Congress. She volunteers with ProduceGood because of the community they have created to alleviate hunger and prevent waste - a big part of environmentalism. She values listening, collaboration and optimism - and it’s a constant learning process!
Recently retired, Susan worked in insurance and financial services with MassMutual, Commonwealth and Genworth, providing training to financial advisors on longevity and long term care financial planning. Susan has a BA from Queens College, City University of New York and an MBA from Loyola Marymount University.

Vann has a PhD in Molecular Biology, and worked in various areas in drug development--, including Oncology, Neurology, Inflammation, Autoimmunity, Metabolism and Infectious Diseases.. For the past 20 years, I have focused on strategic planning, helping sponsors with filings and interactions with the FDA. I have had the opportunity to continually learn throughout my careerNot quite retired, I work three-quarter for a Clinical Research Organization in Carlsbad focused on Rare Diseases.
He has served as a Trustee of the Botanic Garden since 2008, including as head of the Governance Committee and as a member of the Executive Committee. He has been an Assistant Scoutmaster with his son’s Boy Scout troop, leading treks to the mountains and the Channel Islands.
He has been volunteering with Produce Good for the last six years,helping to coordinate the Market Share collection at the Leucadia Farmer’s Market, also assisting with Quick Picks, especially during Blueberry season at The Flower Fields. He has an interest in the mission of the organization, and supports other food distribution organizations in addition to Produce Good.

**Jerilyn White**
ProduceGood Co-Founder
Advisor / Donor Ambassador / Co-Founder

In 2014, Jeri’s interest in building a multigenerational volunteer community grew from a lifelong devotion to service and the need to maximize retirement. After many years of cooking for and feeding homeless individuals and working as Executive Director for an organization serving homeless youth, Jeri felt strongly that a like-minded volunteer community would be the key to reducing hunger and waste through produce recovery. In this spirit, Jeri made the decision to join daughter Alex and friend Nita to establish ProduceGood.
A former secondary educator, college instructor, and thirty-year marketer who founded and directed an advertising agency and worked in many industries, Jeri brings invaluable experience and a huge heart to her role as a full-time Organizational Volunteer, overseeing much of ProduceGood’s administration.
As Community Director, Jeri develops and maintains relationships with additional time spent writing grants, supporting program development, developing marketing tools, acting as “Chief” editor and serving as PG’s AP/Payroll/Insurance Specialist. Through work and volunteer service Jeri has collaborated with government agencies and private and public companies. Jeri has a Master of Arts degree from the University of Redlands.

**Bob Bjorquist**
*Advisor / Volunteer Ambassador*

Service Providers

**Nathan Wauthier**
*Nathan Wauthier Accounting, Inc*

Nathan is an accounting professional who works with non-profit organizations that focus on solving food insecurity. He believes that everyone should have equal access to healthy, local fruits and vegetables and that it should not be an unaffordable luxury like it is for so many families.