Meet Our Team
Staff Members
Chloe Moore (he/she) serves SCF as farm manager, where she grows and distributes healthy food and leads events such as BIPOC-only garden days. Chloe strives to reconnect people of color with land and food in ways that feel empowering, restorative, and delightful. He is a queer, Black and Borikua-Taino, landless farmer, educator, and parent who loves to eat good food, sing to plants, and play in the dirt. Chloe is also a co-creator of Liberation Tools, providing free, hand-forged farm and garden tools to land stewards of color.
Lydia Koltai (she/her) is the youth educator and community engagement manager for Southside Community Farm. Lydia is a mother, gardener, herbalist, and educator with many years of experience teaching children about gardening.
Kate Wheeler (she/they) is farm administrator for the Southside Community Farm and program manager for the Feed AVL Veggie Box program. She is a queer urban farmer who has lived in Asheville for 13 years. She is anti-diet, anti-racist, and pro food-access. Her passion for farming is based in collaboration, reciprocity, and mutual aid.
Anaya Harry (she/her) is currently in her second year as an apprentice on the farm. Anaya is a student at UNC Asheville double majoring in Biology and Health & Wellness Promotion with a concentration in plants. She is extremely passionate about ways to encourage healthy eating habits in communities that are often neglected and left to fend for themselves with unhealthy resources. She plans to one day have a career where she has an impact in supporting the development of safer medicines that are sourced from plants through research.
Leadership Team
Shuvonda Harper (she/her) is a native of Southside and a co-founder of SCF. Growing up here, Shuvonda developed a deep love for her community. Living away from Asheville for a number of years led her to realize that working in her home community is her calling. She is now a well-respected activist, and serves as the chair of the Southside United Neighborhood Association. Shuvonda is a mother and a vocal advocate for the farm and for her community.
Ember Phoenix (they/she) is an herbalist, teacher, and healer. They support SCF by teaching classes on herbal medicine as well as by steering the farm purposefully along a path of collective liberation. Passionate about the healing work they do, Ember enjoys watching others find the lights within themselves. By honoring the Indigenous and African practices of their ancestors, Ember is able to weave ceremonial healing into their community care rituals. They have found their purpose this lifetime fighting for a reality where people can exist and thrive together, co-creating community care systems that reflect and embody an abolitionist and decolonial framework.
Musa Fardan (he/him) co-founded Southside Community Farm in 2014 with other Southside residents as a way to bring healthy food access to the neighborhood. He is a long-time Southside resident.
Marie Cayabyab (she/her) is a board member who volunteered at Southside Community Farm while residing in the neighborhood. The farm has been a place of healing and has deeply impacted both Marie and the communities she is part of. A civil engineer, community organizer, and volunteer for various local organizations, she currently serves as SCF board treasurer.
Our Board of Directors currently includes Shuvonda Harper, Musa Fardan, Tikisha Mwetta (not pictured) and Marie Cayabyab.