Stakeholder Engagement with Local Farms and Agriculture Partners (November 20th, 2025)
This webinar explored the critical role of local farms in sustainable food systems and how policy decisions affect the strength and effectiveness of community partnerships and engagement. Using some case studies, we examined how funding cuts disrupted local food purchasing in schools and what that means for food access and waste. Learn how engaging agricultural partners and aligning with food policy can strengthen the local food cycle.
Meet our Speakers:
Kristie Blumer, Senior Director of Composting, Compost Crew
Kristie leads the Senior Director of Composting at Compost Crew. The company operates several distributed composting systems – its Compost Outposts – in partnership with area farms and municipalities to process high quality compost and build food system resiliency. Kristie has a background in environmental consulting, a degree in environmental science, and is an avid field hockey fan.
Thomas Fazio, Compost Manager, ECO City Farms
Thomas Fazio works as the compost manager at ECO City Farms in Prince George’s County, Maryland. His responsibilities at ECO include managing aerated static pile and vermicomposting systems. Prior to working with ECO, Thomas was a manager at Compost Crew, a Maryland based food scrap recycling company. His experience is in community based on-farm composting using food scraps as the primary input. Thomas is certified as a Compost Facility Operator with the Maryland Department of Agriculture.
Debbie Aller, Senior Extension Associate, New York Center for Organics Recycling and Education (NYCORE) at Cornell University
Debbie Aller is a senior extension associate and director of the newly established New York Center for Organics Recycling and Education (NYCORE) at Cornell University. The NYCORE will continue and expand the work of the Cornell Waste Management Institute by delivering research-based knowledge, training, and technical support in service of organics recycling and reuse among farming communities across NYS. Prior to leading NYCORE, Debbie was a program coordinator with the New York Soil Health Initiative where she assisted farmers in adopting more sustainable soil management practices with a particular focus on quantifying and interpreting soil health in perennial fruit cropping systems as well as utilizing biochar and other organic amendments. She earned her M.S. in Environmental Science and International Development from the University of Edinburgh and Ph.D. in Soil Science from Iowa State University.
Kelli Timbrook, Site Manager, Casella Resource Solution
Kelli is currently the Site Manager at Casella Resource Solutions, and has been at Casella for 11 years. She manages the Long Trail Compost Facility in Bennington, Vermont – a food waste facility which process over 6,000 tons of organic materials annually. Kelli also serves on the Board of Directors of the NYS Association of Reduction, Reuse and Recycling (NYSAR3) and Co-Chairs the Conference Committee Annual Conference. When not teaching her three kids about composting, Kelli enjoys finding new coffee shops and cheering on Liverpool FC.
