Meet our staff
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Suzy RussellNetwork Coordinator
I’m passionate about local food and local communities and I have worked in environmental and arts-based community development for over 20 years.
I joined the Network in 2018 and am loving helping UK CSA to grow.
I have skills and experience in relationship building, strategic management, leadership and income generation.
I started out organising an environmental arts festival and running a community environmental centre in the North East before living in Spain for six years where I worked with a community street theatre group and set up an environmental community development project.
More recently I’ve been CEO at participatory arts organisation in West Yorkshire, building skills and knowledge in health and training and alongside this learning to teach mindfulness.
I’ve always had a patch to grow on, albeit with a wide range of growing conditions and love the magic of everyday life.
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Amy LuckPolicy and Communications Manager
Amy has been involved in the CSA Network since 2020 when she started as a Policy Manager after working at health and environment NGOs in London and Brussels working on policy, campaigns and communications. She also studied Global Health MPH with a focus on human land use and impacts. For the past few years she has been working and learning at permaculture farms and projects in Greece, Spain, Colombia and Uruguay.
She has spent time working in therapeutic growing at a workers cooperative in London and a refugee permaculture project in Lesvos, Greece and is really interested in making agroecological food growing more accessible. And for the multitude of social, health, environmental benefits of community farming to be recognised and better supported.
As well as working at the network Amy works freelance supporting environmental projects including CSAs with project work, funding and research and also teaches yoga, is a keen fermenter and amateur herbalist and vegetable grower.
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Jude WoodsWest Yorkshire Project Worker
Jude has been involved in social justice and green community activism since the late 1970s and has earnt a living from combining arts with community development work.In their work with marginalised communities, they have brought arts and community activism together to help tackle poverty and discrimination, empowering people to get involved and make positive changes in their own lives and our communities.
They have also developed interactive training for professionals, and people in the community, to raise awareness of important issues like hate crime, improving accessibility for older and disabled people, increasing participation and tackling inequality.
Their family have rural roots, and they grew up ‘going down the lotty’ with their dad and grandad so they love to grow flowers and vegetables.
Eva Walters JonesWales Development Worker
Eva has been the co-lead grower at Cae Tan CSA for the past four years. She is deeply passionate about Community Supported Agriculture – particularly the power it has to reconnect people with the food system and make good, nutritious food accessible to everyone.
She trained for three years at Abbey Home Farm before going on to facilitate training at Cae Tan. Through this work she has come to believe that education – both on and off the farm – is one of the most important drivers of change. As a grower and director at Cae Tan, she engages with a wide range of people, from members and volunteers to local partners and policymakers. She sees time and again that everyone has a role to play in shaping a fairer, more resilient food system.
Having grown up in rural Wales, and as a Welsh speaker, Eva is passionate about breaking down barriers within Welsh agriculture. She hopes to help bring a more diverse range of people into farming and into CSA projects across the country.
Before becoming a grower, Eva worked in project management and marketing within third-sector organisations, experience she now draws on in her coordination, outreach, and community-building work.
Meet our board
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Ben RaskinChair
Ben has worked in horticulture for more than 20 years and has a wide range of practical commercial growing experience. For the Soil Association, he provides growers at all levels of production with technical, marketing, policy, supply chain and networking support. He also leads on their Agroforestry work. Ben is an author of gardening books for children and grownups. He is also currently implementing a 200-acre agroforestry planting in Wiltshire. Ben also co-chairs the newly formed Defra Edibles Horticulture Roundtable and sits on the boards of the Organic Growers Alliance.
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Gareth DaviesTreasurer
I am a passionate advocate of local food production and helped to set up Canalside Community Food CSA. Apart from being a member of the steering committee I helped establish an orchard and do the book keeping, finances and business planning. Recently I helped to set up Five Acre Community Farm on land rented from Garden Organic. I have also worked as a researcher with Garden Organic/HDRA looking at weeds, pest and diseases and varieties among other topics.
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Charlotte Barry
I spend a lot of time on my hands and knees growing and harvesting vegetables, as well as cooking and eating them! I’m a founder member of Camel CSA in Cornwall, set up on two acres of rented land near Wadebridge in 2008. So I’ve plenty of hands-on experience running a community veg box scheme and working with volunteers. I also kept and bred poultry for many years. My specific skills are in media and digital communications, arising from my career as journalist, renewable energy publicist, media trainer anduniversity lecturer. Follow Camel CSA on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
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Matthew Whitney
With a background including permaculture, landscaping and sustainability business management, Matt brings a varied skillset to the board. For his Environmental Policy MSc thesis Matt researched how collective action amongst farmers can deliver environmental benefits.
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Mick Marston
Mick has previously worked for the Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens and for the Soil Association in Northern England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. He is a founder member of Gibside Community Farm
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Hannah Lamb
Hannah is Head Grower and Co-Director of Yorkshire Edible Flowers in Doncaster which runs a CSA Veg Box Scheme alongside selling edible and cut flowers wholesale and retail.
After completing a degree in Economics she worked as a Project Manager in the heritage and events sector running a variety of major projects for some of the leading cultural institutions in the UK including the National Railway Museum, Science Museum and British Library.
The CSA’s underlying principles and clear manifesto have been an invaluable tool in allowing Yorkshire Edible Flowers to communicate its mission to their local community. Hannah is very happy to be bringing her project management expertise to the CSA Board, and believes that this vital work will allow other small growers to flourish.
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Nbuwak Yashim
Nbuwak is a Ph.D. Researcher at the Centre for Agroecology Water and Resilience. Her research explores gender, agroecology, and natural resource governance for building equitable resilience in rural Zimbabwe. She is passionate about agroecology, climate change, inclusion, and social justice within food systems, particularly for marginalized communities. She has worked with farmers, women, and girls in agriculture, rural development, and renewable energy across many rural communities in Nigeria and community food growers in Coventry.
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Jo Facer
Jo worked for many years in construction in her home city of London before moving to Northern Ireland to establish Laurelbank Farm, a 7-acre organic smallholding. Laurelbank’s vision is to reconnect people with the land and to nourish and empower communities through farming and feasting.
At its heart is a thriving CSA scheme, and alongside her work on the farm, Jo is an author, teacher, willow weaver, and brewer. In 2023 she co-authored The Edible Flower: A Modern Guide to Growing, Cooking, and Eating Edible Flowers.
She also founded and runs the Growing Academy, a 30-week organic fruit and vegetable growing course based at Laurelbank.
Passionate about community resilience, local food systems, composting, and the power of shared meals, Jo brings both practical experience and creativity to the CSA Network UK board.
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