A Yankee with a soft spot for the South, Sarah Bolinger grew up in Massachusetts, enjoying her mom's great cooking and helping in the garden. Sarah left New England to attend Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating in 2012 with a degree in biology and environmental studies. At Oberlin she became very involved in Northeast Ohio's budding local foods movement, volunteering with the City Fresh farm share program and studying the potential for expansion of local grain production in NE Ohio markets. She has worked on farms in Massachusetts, Quebec, and Oberlin during the summer, as well as on the DC Central Kitchen's Truck Farm educational mobile garden. Sarah, whose mother grew up near Pensacola, is excited to be living in the South, teaching people about gardening, and exploring Louisiana's culture and food heritage as she serves this year with the Louisiana Delta Service Corps. She will be planning urban agriculture workshops for the BR community in the fall, and a larger urban ag training program for the spring. She likes cooking, knitting, swing dancing, learning languages, and snow. 

Maggie Conarro is a proud Louisiana native and recent LSU graduate in Political Science and Spanish. While she has long been interested in various aspects of sustainability, she only recently gained hands on experience in vegetable gardening when she took Dr. Carl Motsenbocker’s Organic Gardening class in her final semester.  Surprised by the ease of growing vegetables, she was hooked.   Maggie is very excited to serve her community this year as a Louisiana Delta Service Corps member.  Through her service, she hopes to support community efforts in improving food access and healthier living by helping organizations, schools, or other institutions develop sustainable vegetable gardens and related programming.  Maggie’s interests outside of Slow Food’s efforts stick with a theme of sustainability and preservation, as she is an avid Cajun and Zydeco music and dance enthusiast.  She has made a habit of escaping Louisiana’s extreme heat in the summers and overall lackluster winters with travel abroad to destinations including places in Central and South America, the Caribbean, and Europe. She is also the helicopter parent of Pepa, the cutest, sassiest dog in the world.

PAST STAFF

After graduating from Louisiana State University in Agriculture Economics in May of 2011, Grant Guidroz decided to give back to his hometown by serving as a Louisiana Delta Service Corps member with Slow Food Baton Rouge. Grant has had a passion for growing food and kept a garden all though college. He was excited to join Slow Food Baton Rouge and the effort to build a more local and sustainable food system. While serving with Slow Food Baton Rouge, Grant has worked with community partners to build youth gardens, put together Baton Rouge's first Local Food Guide, and is currently developing an urban farming training program. When Grant isn't serving with Slow Food Baton Rouge, he enjoys eating great food and being with friends and family, preferably together!

Allison Hawkins Guidroz first became interested in growing food after taking an Organic Gardening class with Dr. Motsenbocker while an undergraduate at Louisiana State University. While earning her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, she interned with the South Garden Project, helping to develop community gardens in Old South Baton Rouge. Before serving with Louisiana Delta Service Corps at Slow Food Baton Rouge, Allison spent a summer in Italy traveling and working at an argiturismo where she got to see a lifestyle of eating fresh and locally firsthand. She loves Louisiana and is most interested in empowering people through the knowledge of growing food and improving health through cooking. When she’s not cooking, gardening or taking care of her flock of hens, she enjoys hiking and traveling off the beaten path.