Mark Vanderhoek

Founded the nonprofit to build a local and sustainable food system for Macon and Middle Georgia. Lead efforts to increase quantity, quality and access to sustainable, nutritionally dense food for all people in the area. • Responsible for maintaining organization’s budget, executing contracts and grant reporting. • Develop and maintain relationships with national, state and community organizations to launch local food initiatives. • Network with farmers, businesses and consumers to develop new markets for healthy foods. • Maintain all aspects of the group’s communications efforts, including social media, website and media outreach. • Plan, promote and implement events to educate and inform the public about local food systems. • Founding member of the Georgia Food Policy Council and the Middle Georgia Food Hub Task Force. • Advisory board member for FFA chapters at Northeast High School and Rutland High School. Initiatives • Worked with community partners to found the Mulberry Street Market, Macon’s first producers-only farmers market. In its first two years, the market has earned more than $380,000 in revenue for local farmers. • Social entrepreneur representative on working group that created Social Entrepreneurship major at Mercer University. • Acquired 14 acres of property in federally designated food desert for creation of a training farm. • Founded Beall’s Hill Community Garden at Centenary, a garden serving residents in a historic Macon neighborhood • Secured more than $59,000 in grant funding for Beall’s Hill Community Garden. • Completed the application process with the Internal Revenue Service to designate Macon Roots as a 501c(3) nonprofit.