If you are interested in getting mentoring from an experienced gleaner as part of the AGO Mentor Program, please complete the Mentee Application Form. You will be asked to select your top choices of a mentor from the field of possible mentors below. Be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom to learn more about the ten possible mentors. To facilitate your meetings with your mentor, please consider time zone in making your selection.
Kokua Harvest, Hawaii
Charlotte Leger is a Harvest Lead for Kokua Harvest in Hilo, Hawaii. She is passionate about food systems, island canoe plants, and how culture and people interact over time. She loves to ask big questions that have no simple answers, and learn from others who have weathered wild inner and outer storms. When she is not out gleaning, she paints large paintings of feelings and monsters with her small son, plays in the water and enjoys the beautiful relationships embedded in her community.
Cumberland County Food Security Council, Maine
Connor is the Local Food Access Program Manager for Cumberland County Food Security Council, where he manages their gleaning program that rescues 30,000+ lbs of food/year from farms. He recently moved to Maine from Vermont, where he organized teams of volunteers for clean energy advocacy, worked on an organic veggie farm, and never learned to cross country ski. Connor is excited to work in a community that cares for the land, the people on it, and translates that care into action.
Plenty! Farm & Food Bank, Virginia
As a native of Radford, Virginia, Shannon brings a deep understanding of the importance of food and nutrition to her role as Executive Director of Plenty! Farm and Food Bank. With a background in health and wellness, nutrition, and health promotion, Shannon is passionate about addressing food insecurity and its impact on individuals and communities. Holding degrees from Radford University and further enhancing her expertise at Virginia Tech, Shannon leverages her knowledge and experience to drive Plenty!'s mission forward, fostering a healthier and more food-secure community.
Kokua Harvest, Hawaii
Lisa DeSantis is the Program Manager and co-founder of Kōkua Harvest, the gleaning/food rescue program of The Food Basket, Hawaiʻi Island’s Food Bank. Since 2019, she has helped grow the program into an island-wide initiative that reduces food waste, increases access to fresh produce, and fosters community connection. Lisa’s experience spans harvest coordination, volunteer management, grant writing, and strategic partnership development, working closely with farmers, donors, schools, and local organizations to strengthen Hawaii’s food systems. Her approach to this work is grounded in integrity, care, and relationship-building, modeling the values of reciprocity and aloha to nurture both food access and social resilience.
Hidden Harvest Ottawa/Common Fruit, Canada
As a founder of Hidden Harvest, a charitable urban fruit-gleaning project launched in 2012, I’ve seen how much stronger our work becomes when we learn from one another. I enjoy talking with gleaners - we have so much in common, across oceans and borders.
Over the years I’ve worn many hats, from strategic planning to hands-on harvesting, always looking for more efficient ways to keep going in an environment of uncertain funding. While steering the gleaning ship, I tested many ways of bringing in money—events, donation drives, CSA models, product sales, affiliations. I also built volunteer training programs, community engagement strategies, and made plenty of mistakes along the way.
These days I spend more time on Common Fruit, a tech platform built to support gleaners. I won’t have all the answers, but I’d love to join you in exploring some good questions!
Portland Fruit Tree Project, Oregon
Heather (she/her) is a born-Oregonian who loves food and problem solving. In addition to being the Exec. Dir. of the Portland Fruit Tree Project, she holds a Masters in Public Administration and 14 years of work in the nonprofits. In her free time, she preserves food, bakes, and otherwise lives out life as a stereotype of Portland including owning chickens and ducks. This year, Heather has become a Master Preserver and is now leading canning workshops and making jams and preserves for sale by Portland Fruit Tree Project. Ask Heather about PFTP's tree care program and workforce development programs.
Food Foward, California
Christopher Wehling has worked for Food Forward for 7 years, and was recently promoted to Senior Coordinator of Food Forward's Backyard Harvest Program. Wehling has spent more than 500 hours leading fruit harvests, farm gleans, trainings and other events with volunteers. Furthermore, Wehling holds a bachelor’s degree in Photojournalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Webster University. Since 2009, Food Forward has recovered over 500 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables-food that would have otherwise gone to waste-redirected instead to communities facing food insecurity across Southern California through over 250+ hunger relief partners.
Merry Meeting Gleaners, Maine
David is the Food Bank Manager at MidCoast Hunger Prevention and Coordinator of the Merrymeeting Gleaners- the largest gleaning organization in Maine. Before moving into the non-profit world, he worked on local farms for a decade, including as the co-owner of cut flower farm in Bowdoinham, Maine. Based on his work experience, David is interested bridging the gaps between farms, gleaning organizations and Food Banks, fostering complimentary systems that recognize the unique realities and challenges of each entity.
Tikkun Ha-Ir, Wisconsin
Brandice Kirchner lives in Milwaukee, WI and works for Tikkun Ha-Ir (Repair the City) Milwaukee, a Jewish nonprofit that is one of the only gleaning focused-organizations in Milwaukee. The best thing about her position as a Food Justice Director is going out to farms with groups of gleaners seeing just how much we can pick that would otherwise be left behind! Perfectly beautiful fruits and vegetables are brought back to the city by means of a fantastic use of volunteer time. While she loves her city, she sees the glaring inequities, and bringing this food to the city is a feeling that is hard to describe.
Salvation Farms, Vermont
Ciara grew up in the small coastal town of Elizabeth City, North Carolina and eventually made her way across the state to the Carolina mountains to attend Appalachian State University where she earned her BS in Sustainable Development and Agroecology. Since graduating, she’s worked on several small organic vegetable farms and served two terms as an AmeriCorps member. One term as an Agricultural Education Capacity Building VISTA in Virginia and one term as a Farm to School Coordinator in Vermont. She is currently the Northeast Kingdom Gleaning Coordinator at Salvation Farms and enjoys getting to serve the local food system and build community around food.