Board of Directors

David has been involved with food co-ops since he was a a working member of the Savannah Food Co-op in Georgia in the late 1970's. In the early 1980's he was too poor to even get to the co-ops in Vermont, but in the late 80's things improved and he shopped at the Onion River Co-op in Montpelier VT. Since the early 90's he has been a member of the Cambridge Food Co-op.

​

David is a retired furniture conservator that lives within walking distance of the Cambridge Food Coop and all those Board meetings.

Fern and her husband, Tom Cole, followed their hearts to the Hudson Valley a dozen years ago, serendipitously ended up in Cambridge in 2007, and are happy to have found a home here. Fern and Tom are known to all who’ve attended a community dance at Hubbard Hall—Fern is the caller and Tom assists out on the dance floor. Fern and Tom are also members of the Cambridge Community Garden, enjoy their home garden, and keep bees and chickens. In her professional life, Fern has worked as a book editor and writer for close to three decades. She was on staff at Rodale Press for many years and is the author of Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver and an editor of Rodale’s Ultimate Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening and many other titles. She is currently a senior editor for Chelsea Green Publishing, an independent, employee-owned publishing company specializing in books about regenerative agriculture and sustainable living.

Rachel Costello is a certified Yoga Therapist specializing in hatha, vinyasa, prenatal, postpartum, trauma-informed yoga and yoga for children and families. Through her company, Yo Re Mi, Rachel works with schools, educators and early childhood professionals to bring music, yoga and mindfulness to young children all over New York.​

Rachel has been a working member of The Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn since 2004 and was a founding member of the Bushwick Food Co-op. She also worked at the Flatbush Food Co-op in Brooklyn and Honest Weight in Albany. Rachel is an artist, singer, performer and mother of two. She moved to Cambridge with her family in 2020.

I grew up on a small homestead in Louisiana, and as a child helped out with the chickens and  gardens, and was jealous of big brothers who took care of the calves. In college I learned  about Co-ops by living in one. When we moved to the Berkshires with a young family, it was first to Gould Farm, an intentional community that uses farming as therapy for the mentally ill.  Later we became members of the Great Barrington Food Co-op and of the very first CSA in the country, that had just started in South Egremont. Before I moved to Cambridge last year, I lived on a small homestead farm in New Lebanon, where I once charged a bobcat who had one of our chickens in its mouth - the chicken and I both survived. I retired from ministry in 2019, drove a  camper van around the country for a year, fell in love with an East Greenwich fellow named Bruce Squiers, and decided to move to Cambridge. One of the reasons I chose Cambridge over other nearby towns was the Co-op. We moved into a new home on S. Union St. this summer and married in September at Lake Lauderdale Park, General Manager Katie having worked hard to get us cases of compostable picnic ware, which was great. I would love to help the Co-op in any way I can.

Bliss White McIntosh was born and raised in Cambridge and returned to live here after college. She was part of the original buying club which became the Village Store Coop in 1978 and has been a member ever since. She and her husband Robbie raised their two daughters (and 6 exchange students) on co-op food and have been committed to eating as seasonally and locally as they can, with as little packaging as possible.   Music, basket making and gardening and now grandparenting make life full, fun and delicious. She looks forward to serving on the coop board once again, hoping to help keep our brave little co-op alive and well in these new times.  

My wife Mary and I have lived in Cambridge for almost 35 years; we've raised our two sons here and we very much enjoy living in this community.  In fact, I was a working Co-op member when we first arrived in the area 34 years ago but the needs of our growing family and our two developing careers prevented us from being as involved as we might have been back then.  I have had a long and fulfilling career working for and on behalf of helping organizations and now that I am retired I am in a position now to do a bit more to help this community remain healthy.  To that end I should mention that I recently ran for the White Creek Town Board (unsuccessfully!)(by 9 votes!) and that I am currently enjoying my role as a member of the Mary McClellan Foundation Board.  

​

Over the years I have served on several boards both professionally and personally, at statewide and national levels.  In my work as Executive Director for a diverse community mental health center I have worked closely with that Board of Directors to promote the goals of the organization.  I have developed fairly broad expertise in organizational management including budgeting, marketing and in strategic planning and I look forward to  contributing to the Cambridge Food Co-op Board in any of those areas.

A native of Ballston Spa, Kathleen moved to the village of Cambridge with her family in 2016 after 10 years of goat farming and homeschooling in Saratoga County, and many years in Albany and eastern Massachusetts before that. Cambridge was the scene of many happy memories from her childhood, visiting her grandparents on Academy Street, and spending time at Hedges Lake, but it was the prospect of living in a town with a food co-op that helped make the decision to move to Cambridge that much easier for her and her family. Experienced in customer service and non-profit administration, Kathleen originally joined the Co-op board in 2017, but stepped down to help cover a Co-op staff vacancy in the fall of 2019. What was to have been a temporary position turned into a pandemic position and maternity leave coverage (for another staff member) and now 2+ years later, Kathleen is honored to be back on the board. As a board member, she helps with organizational planning, member engagement, and staff development. 

During his previous terms on the Co-op Board, Charles Reiss served as Building Manager, Treasurer, and Chair of the Finance Committee. He secured the Co-op’s mortgage from the Community Loan Fund to purchase One West Main Street and later obtained a NYS Main Street Grant and matching funds to complete a number of major improvements to the building. New siding and front entrance steps, painting and brickwork and chimney repairs were completed on the exterior. New flooring and painting also transformed the interior of the store. He also handled rentals of the second floor offices, issuing leases and making tenant improvements for all of the five spaces.

His professional career included architecture, public and private housing development and serving as Director of the Columbia University Graduate Program of Real Estate Development.

I have lived in South Cambridge for 18 years. For much of that time, my wife Debby Jaffe and I have operated a small vegetable, berry, and poultry farm. We have used the farm as a vehicle for promoting local agriculture both through promoting and selling at the Cambridge Valley Farmers Market and through selling our produce to the co-op. In the process, we have developed strong relationships with many other local producers. Over the past few years, we have become more active at the co-op. Debby and I, as well as our daughter, Leah, have participated as working members and volunteers. Not to mention we have offered plenty of unsolicited advice. I look forward to the opportunity to contribute any way I can to help the co-op continue to thrive.