Staff

 Isaac Bearg, Program Director – Food, Climate and Environment: Isaac is excited to join the RIFPC to focus on the myriad of ways we can make our food systems more sustainable from seed to soil. Prior to joining RIFPC Isaac was a founding member and Vice President of the NJCC. He received an MBA in 2017 from Boston University Questrom School of Business in Energy and Environmental Sustainability. After receiving his degree, he completed a research project for Impact Venture Capitalists Mission Point Partners on investments supporting the anaerobic digestion and composting industry understanding the challenges and opportunities to supporting the industry. 

Moving back home to NJ with a new understanding of the organics space he helped form and serves as the VP of the NJCC and chair of the advocacy committee. He traveled frequently to the state capital to advocate for better policy and served as a compost and organics diversion educator across the state. Isaac was also instrumental in the NJCC being awarded federal USDA, statewide Department of Environmental Protection, as well as private foundation grants. Serving on the project team for these grants he helped teach backyard composting, completed university-wide waste audits, wrote official progress and final grant reports, and worked collaboratively on university-wide educational programs designed to increase food scrap diversion. To further his education in the field he has taken and is certified by the NJ Compost Operators Training Course and the USCC Principles of Manufacturing Course. 

Isaac is working to form the Waste Food Solutions Action Network and Plan as well as promote municipal composting and advocate for better food waste reduction and recycling policy in RI. 

Josh helps build the capacity of the organization: managing and overseeing internal operations, coordinating the Council, and serving as the secondary liaison to the Board. His work is central to RIFPC’s strategic growth and sustainability.  He served as an active Council Member for four years (the maximum term), and was a founding board member and treasurer. Most recently serving as Director of the Southern Region for the RI Small Business Development Center at URI, Josh specialized in small business development and smart economic growth. His tenure as a Council and board member has given him a deep understanding of the impacts of food systems advocacy, legislative engagement, and network resilience. Josh holds an MBA from Loyola University New Orleans and honed his professional skills in great cities like NOLA, San Francisco, and Ottawa, Ontario, before returning home to Rhode Island. He’s community-minded and passionate about creating social change and benefits for our communities through social enterprise and shared entrepreneurship/employee ownership.

For nearly two decades, Rachel has been working with policymakers, community-based organizations, and under-represented communities to increase equitable access to and control of the resources we need to live healthy lives. Food policy and food equity have been strong threads throughout Rachel’s career, from developing and managing community gardens in Boston and Providence, serving as the founding staff member of Sankofa World Market in Providence’s West End, and most recently driving health policy and programs as Acting Director of the City of Providence’s Healthy Communities Office. Rachel earned her MA in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning from Tufts University and lives with her family on the South Side of Providence.

Isaac Reid, Program Associate – Food, Climate, & Environment: Isaac has been passionately involved in local food systems since they were a child through an interest in local produce and culinary science and is thrilled to be growing that passion at the RIFPC! While in undergrad at Indiana University, Isaac worked at FARM Bloomington as a cook and pastry chef. Isaac also received their 200-hour yoga teaching certification. This led them to take a postgrad internship in Ayurvedic medicine with Banyan Botanicals at their regenerative herbal farm in Williams, Oregon. They spent days tending to the farm, nights learning, and weekends exploring the natural beauty of the Applegate Valley. Isaac couldn’t leave the West Coast just yet, they did a year of service with FoodCorps in Klamath Falls, Oregon teaching kids to cook. For Isaac’s second year of service with FoodCorps, they journeyed across the country to Providence, RI, serving in Providence Public Schools. There, Isaac and their counterpart teamed up with the RI School Recycling Project to empower kids to compost in school cafeterias district-wide. While at FoodCorps, I was selected to be a member of the Service Member Action Committee (SMAC). As the senior member of SMAC, Isaac led the committee in presenting to the executive team at FoodCorps for their Regional Equity Project. Isaac then went on to administer the Child and Adult Food Program (CACFP) and Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) at the Rhode Island Department of Education.

Isaac is excited to be joining the RIFPC as the Food, Climate, and Environment Program Associate! Isaac is working to expand municipal outreach, empowering local communities to build and expand compost infrastructure statewide. Provide educational resources and proven compost infrastructure frameworks to municipal leaders. Educate community members on foodways that prevent wasted food from making it to our landfill. Isaac is also thrilled to be helping grow the Annual Rhode Island Compost Conference!

Nessa leads the Council in achieving its mission to promote a more accessible, equitable, and sustainable food system in Rhode Island. Externally, she represents the network in a variety of settings. Internally, she cultivates leadership within each of the organization’s staff. She works closely with Rhode Island’s Director of Food Strategy and other state leaders to advance good food policy and implement the Rhode Island food strategy, Relish Rhody, which is a comprehensive five-year plan unveiled in May 2017 to grow and sustain markets for locally grown food for the good of communities, the environment, and the economy. Nessa is a native Rhode Islander who returned to her hometown of South Kingstown ten years ago after living and working in Austin, Texas and the Washington D.C. metropolitan area. Nessa has earned a self-designed degree in Political Economic of Natural Resources from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a Master of Public Policy from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government.

Blong supports outreach efforts to farmers related to accessing technical assistance service providers and USDA programs. He has held many positions in the past, including engineering, commercial fishing, insurance, financial advising, and farming, and is also on staff at the Southside Community Land Trust as the Community Gardens Associate. Blong has extensive ties to Rhode Island’s Hmong Community, enjoys working outdoors, and connecting with community members.