Zoe was raised in Colorado by parents who tended a beautiful garden, so she had the privilege of eating fresh, home-grown food on a regular basis. In 2016, Zoe moved to Vermont to attend Champlain College, where she started as an art and design student and quickly added a minor in Environmental Studies. This combination allowed her to explore her interests in art, activism and sustainability design. 

 

During her junior year, Zoe studied abroad in New Zealand to learn more about sustainability design. A lot of her studies focused on building sustainable systems, creating such systems, and even evolving the current ones to be more sustainable. Zoe also spent extra time independently traveling outside of her exchange program, even spending a month doing a farming Workaway (room & board in exchange for labor) in Takaka, NZ.

 

After this experience, Zoe truly realized her love for working outside with her hands in the dirt. She believes that our food systems are a powerful leverage point for creating impactful change on both a small and large scale, and she feels extremely fortunate to be part of her own community’s food system. Plus it's an added bonus that she spends every day outside connecting with plants, soil and chickens!