About KLFC
Mission
Eat local foods. Nourish our community.
Kenai Local Food Connection is a group of local food advocates, growers, parents, cooks, and friends. Some of us also work in positions dedicated to food and health. It's a grassroots effort to forge connections within our community to increase access to local foods and knowledge about healthy eating. Our efforts grow each year. Our activities, focused on growing, harvesting, and cooking local foods, support food security and health in the communities of Kenai, Soldotna, Kasilof, Sterling, Nikiski, Clam Gulch, Anchor Point, and Homer.
Connectors
We are an informal group that always welcomes new faces to the table.
Interested in getting involved? Connect with KLFC!
Meet the KLFC Team!
Susan Nabholz
Board President
Susan is a co-founder and current board president of KLFC. She recently retired from a 30-year career as a middle and high school language arts teacher, and she is thrilled to now have time to devote her creative energies to supporting the local food movement in our community. Susan enjoys shopping at farmers markets, gathering wild plants (especially lowbush cranberries), and processing all the fish and game that fill her family’s freezers. Her family includes her husband Brad and son Jake, and they all enjoy exploring, camping, canoeing, and working on creative projects at home together. Favorite family recipes include Potato Leek Soup, Salmon-Veggie Burgers, Cranberry Bread, and Susan's award-winning Thai Seafood Chowder.
Eliza Eller
Board Vice President
Eliza is one of KLFC's co-founders and current VP of the board. Her personal wellness recipe includes wholesome plant-based foods and outdoor projects with family and friends, such as gardening, berry picking, and natural building. She and her husband have 13 grown children plus 8 grandchildren, with whom she loves to puzzle and draw. Eliza authors cookbooks, teaches cooking classes, writes grant proposals, organizes wellness workshops and peer support trainings, and is usually interested in any project that builds a culture of mutual support and cooperation with the natural world. Her favorite local food dish is seaweed salad with Kachemak Bay alaria, freshly picked cucumbers, and a homemade tofu garden-dill dressing.
Caraline Kinnie
Board Treasurer
Caraline has been a volunteer member of KLFC since 2018, and is the current board treasurer. She is a Registered Dietitian and has always had passion around local food and nutrition education. Caraline’s hobbies include spending time outdoors, anything sourdough, cooking nourishing meals, and spending time with her family. Her favorite local foods are carrots and smoked salmon.
Mollie Messick
Board Secretary
Mollie is a KLFC volunteer and secretary of the board. She loves to grow food and herbs, especially perennials. She also loves to write about people who grow food, and has authored several articles in Edible Alaska. She is passionate about local food systems and is currently working to bring the issue of food sovereignty into language curriculum. She often wonders why we all have to have tomatoes when rosehip ketchup is so delicious. Mollie's favorite local food is "nesto," or nettle pesto. She likes to turn extra greens into experimental pestos and to dry herbs and flowers for tea. She and her family now split their time between Soldotna and Anchorage.
Joy Bartlett
Board Member
Joy volunteers as the newest member on the Board of Directors for KLFC. Joy has recently returned to her roots on the Peninsula where she hopes to contribute to growth in her community. Coming from a family of homesteaders, she has a deep connection to the land, healthy living and sustainability. She enjoys working at a local hydroponic farm, growing and sharing nutritious food for customers and friends alike. By any means, Joy loves to be in the mountains or on bodies of water here in our great state. Favorite harvested foods include moose stew and high bush blueberry muffins.
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Carly Pierson
Let's Cook! Coordinator
Carly has a background in sustainable agriculture and environmental education, with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in environmental science. Carly also worked with farmers in Paraguay while serving in the Peace Corps. After returning to the US, she worked as a natural resource technician and environmental educator. Carly's grandparents farmed in Colorado, and like them, she loves the land! She and her husband are compost enthusiasts, avid hikers, berry pickers, and Nordic skiers. Carly works hard to support local producers and tend to her greenhouse garden. Her favorite local foods are salmon and homemade berry jam.
Mary May
Resilience Director
Mary May serves as KLFC’s Resilience Director, working with stakeholders to identify gaps in knowledge and build programming around those gaps to increase local resilience. Additionally, she manages established organization activities such as the Stay Healthy food program and the Local Food Directory. In her spare time, she loves learning about public health, policy in action, and new ways to empower people through food and community. She loves to carve time out of her week for a ski at Tsalteshi or a yoga class. Her favorite local dish comes in autumn with the beet harvest, early enough to still have plenty of fresh dill for a hearty borscht.
Ann Ohn-Bar
Harvest Moon Coordinator
Ann is an event organizer, plant-based chef, and passionate advocate for local food systems in Alaska. As the head organizer of the annual Harvest Moon Local Food Festival, Ann has led the event for the past few years, bringing together farmers, makers, chefs, families, and neighbors to celebrate the richness of Kenai’s local food community. Born and raised in Alaska, Ann has a deep connection to the land. She grows much of her own food and believes strongly in sustainable, community-centered food practices. Her work reflects her gift for bringing people together — building partnerships, fostering collaboration, and creating welcoming spaces where relationships and ideas can flourish.