Our Members

Our members may be farmers, producers, consumers, volunteers or any combination of the above!

Our Teams

• our producers and farmers
• our many volunteer members who support all functions of the Co-operative.
• members who work for the Southern NSW Harvest Co-operative Ltd (as employees) to manage the operations and keep us delivering our services
• an organising committee (the Board) who volunteer to carry out the Strategic Direction and Governance for the Co-operative. Board nominees may be farmers, producers or general members.
• Board led working groups typically including a board member and volunteer members. These groups do the good work to move us forward, support events or monitor some area like ‘team care (HR)’, finance or policies.
• Partners and Advisors who provide specialist services and support.

Meet some of our Members

Committee Member and Farmer

Geoff Foster

Geoff, with his wife Colleen, trading as Jerrabatt Gully Organics, has been supplying fresh produce to customers in the Canberra-Bungendore region since 1995. Located at Bywong, their property is devoted to intensive vegetable production, and includes a few scattered fruit and nut trees. The farm employs three local workers on a part-time basis.

Mainly they provide weekly boxes of mixed vegetables year-round to subscription customers, therefore it’s necessary to grow a large number of vegetable varieties. Climate and weather play a large role in what the farm can produce and they grow most frost-tender crops in a large greenhouse. They harvest rainwater from farm sheds and the greenhouse, save much of their own seeds and grow all their own seedlings for transplanting. Geoff also sells his produce through the Southern Harvest weekly produce box subscription scheme and at the community stall at the Bungendore Farmers Markets. You can find him there from 9-12 am every Saturday morning.

Committee Secretary

Linda Graham-McCann

Linda Graham-McCann has been a Company Director for over 40 years and has held a variety of executive roles including CEO of a large social enterprise, Regional Manager for a network of Tibetan Buddhist meditation centres and owner/operator of the ACT Organic food delivery service. In her retirement, she’s currently living in Upper Boro on an organic cattle farm and lending a hand out at Landtasia Organic Compost in Mulloon.

She has lived in the Bungendore region on and off since 1989 and co-founded the Upper Mulloon Creek Landcare group in 1994 which received massive funding to repair a large headcut on Mulloon Creek at its source in a rare highland peat bog. She’s a keen gardener and meditation instructor and you might run into her when she’s occaisionally minding the SHA Bungendore shop. 

Member and Farmer

Jo Gaha
Jo has had a varied career as a social worker, counsellor, academic and senior public servant before becoming an alpaca farmer. She lives on 120 acres in Michelago and breeds high quality alpacas in a variety of colours and produces natural alpaca fleece and yarn. The yarn and hand made goods are sold under the name of Pacawoolly. The farm uses sustainable, natural and economically viable products and processes in the care of the alpacas, the land and the fleeces.

Her heritage as a woman from Lebanon, with a mother who was a wonderful gardener and cook has given her a love for, and commitment to, locally grown, seasonal foods and she can turn any set of seasonal ingredients into a delicious and wholesome meal.

Jo has contributed as a committee Chair and member; and active volunteer member from the very start.

Committee Member and Farmer

Damian Stocks

Damian grew up on a traditional sheep, cattle, and wheat farm, but his career path led him to Canberra where he pursued animation and game development. Together with his wife Rachael, they have successfully run a digital content production business for over 20 years. Outside of the 9-5, they also own and operate Home Soil – a small farm located on the outskirts of Canberra, specialising in growing open pollinated and heirloom vegetables, and are contributors to the Southern NSW Harvest produce boxes. Home Soil utilizes techniques from
No Dig, Permaculture, Regenerative and natural farming to build efficient and sustainable growing systems.

Damian is in the final stages of his studies with SoilFoodWeb, aiming for lab certification to identify soil organisms and accurately calculate biomass. Supported by local businesses, Damian collects approximately 7-9 240L of food waste and 1.5 cubic meters of used animal bedding weekly, allowing the production of Biocomplete compost at scale. These pursuits blend his expertise in the digital / technical with his commitment to sustainable, regenerative agriculture. Damian is enthusiastic about serving on the board of Southern NSW Harvest and looking forward to contributing hisunique blend of skills and passion.

Committee Member and Produce Box Hub Host – Queanbeyan

Lizzy Smith

Lizzy is an experienced designer specialising in management systems, work design and wellbeing. Lizzy is a certified human factors and ergonomics professional (how humans interact with the world) and certified in Usability (digital design and interaction design).
Lizzy has worked in WHS management roles across many sectors – aviation, waste management, community services, social enterprise and management consulting.  Lizzy current works with Communities At Work, a Canberra based Charity. Briefly a consultant with Accenture, before that, during the COVID pandemic years, Lizzy was the Safety & Wellbeing Partner with Community Resources Ltd, an Australian social enterprise charity that operates Resources Recovery and Soft Landing (mattress recycling).

Lizzy coordinates PEAS a local guild of Permaculture Educators.
Lizzy can: talk for hours on Solar punk, creativity, Permaculture, bioregioning, user experience and designing edible gardens (even when you are $%^* at gardening); aspires to canoe on every lake at the south coast; loves to travel to experience how people grow and eat their food; is originally from Queensland and is now a Queanbeyan ‘local’ and loves river walking.

OPERATIONS MANAGER

Ruth Gaha-Morris
My work with SHA as Operations Manager, allows me to have worthwhile and meaningful linkages into my local food and farming communities. I am constantly amazed and often overwhelmed with the depth of community connections we are making through our activities like the Harvest Festival and the Multi-farm Produce Box Scheme. Many of my earliest memories are of growing, cooking and preserving food. I am passionate about eating ethically and sustainably, having local food security, and I love to feed people. I run a small catering business utilising local, found and foraged foods to create tasty treats and year long preserves. I also run workshops in preserving, fermenting and cooking and get great satisfaction from teaching others how to work with the local harvests. I also work with the Farmers Market Alliance of NSW and, on a national level, with the Australian Food Sovereignty Alliance.

PRODUCE BOX ASSISTANT, COMMS & ENGAGEMENT

Lucy Ridge
Lucy is a Canberra chef and freelance writer (mostly about food) taking a step back from the kitchen after a decade of cheffing to take a deep and curious dive into food production and sustainability, and learn more about the food system as a whole. Lucy is also a big fan of vegetables.

FARMERS MARKET ASSISTANT

Sonia McDonnell
Sonia had thought for awhile that being self sustainable was the goal, to be reliant as much as possible on what she could produce in her back yard. To this end Sonia attended permaculture courses, gardening workshops and grew many a veggie in this pursuit. Whilst this has taught her a lot, she found it to not actually be a realistic goal especially with working, having a young family and a small business.

Sonia got involved with Southern NSW Harvest when she joined the Produce box scheme, as a way to supplement what they could grow at home, with good quality local food. However, what Sonia discovered, as well as delicious, nutrient dense food, was a rich community of people. “Farmers who can tell me about why the swedes are good this week or how come a carrot can grow to 750g and the real impact of drought; Community Stall customers who can delight with me in the lush colour of Warrigal greens or share the joy that a bunch of radishes can bring; veggie box subscribers who regail me with a story and recipe of how they used turnips in the previous week; and other volunteers who I enjoy catching up with every week. I started being a veggie box subscriber and have ended up finding a community to belong to and that’s pretty great”.

PRODUCE BOX LOGISTICS VOLUNTEER & RESEARCHER

Bronwyn Wilkes
Bronwyn is a voracious vegetable eater who has been subscribing to the Southern NSW Harvest produce boxes since the Summer 2017-18 season, and volunteering since the Winter 2018 season – first at the Canberra City Farm site in Fyshwick, then later setting up the ANU collection site in Autumn 2019. She loves being able to support farmers who are stewarding the land, air, and water of this beautiful part of the world in ecologically sensitive ways. She enjoys the opportunity to be involved in helping other eaters access nutritious food farmed in ways that support the health and wellbeing of farmers, eaters, and ecosystems alike. Bronwyn particularly relishes the sense of community that SHA’s produce box scheme has helped to grow, and not just because she has a captive audience for her terrible food puns, but it also means she’s not the only person to get ridiculously excited about broccoli and leafy greens.

Accountant and Produce Box Volunteer

Sarah Burgess
Hiya! Professionally I am a bean counter (affectionately used in jest), I am an accountant. I have volunteered to be the assistant treasurer. I have no green thumb skills whatsoever, but I am a keen bean and I love to cook (home-cooked-rustic-intuitive-creations) and more than cooking, I love to eat. The only philosophy I am guided by in being a committee member (my first) is wanting to help and the self-interest of being able to get my hands on the best, local ingredients around. I am blessed to be surrounded by honest, hard-working and knowledgeable people in Southern NSW Harvest.