Duskie Estes
Executive Director
Duskie Estes comes to us after two decades of dedication to ethical sourcing and advocacy for small farmers in her farm-to-table restaurant, ZAZU Kitchen+Farm and her meat company, Black Pig Meat Co. A graduate of Brown University, Estes’s career has included critical acclaim as well as television appearances on Food Network and PBS.
Duskie and her husband, John Stewart, operated ZAZU from 2001 through the spring of 2019, when the restaurant was lost due to the flooding of the Russian River. ZAZU was named a TOP 10 best new restaurant and was listed for multiple years in the San Francisco Chronicle’s TOP 100 restaurants. It was included in the San Francisco Michelin Guide for over a decade and rated TOP 50 restaurants in the Bay Area by San Francisco Magazine. Estes & Stewart received the Rising Star Chef Awards for Sustainability, Slow Food Snail Awards, and they were crowned King and Queen of Pork at the Grand Cochon at Aspen Food & Wine, making Estes the first woman to earn that title. Their meat company specializes in ethically-raised pigs sourced directly from small farms and uses the entire animal ‘snout to tail.’ Black Pig coppa and prosciutto won Good Food Awards in 2017 and 2019.
Prior to her move to Sonoma County, Estes worked with Tom Douglas at his acclaimed Seattle restaurants: Palace Kitchen, Etta’s Seafood, and the Dahlia Lounge. During her two-year tenure as chef of Palace Kitchen, she was voted Seattle City Search’s Best Chef. Under her leadership, Palace Kitchen was rated by Gourmet magazine as one of the top five Seattle restaurants and in the nation’s top 50 restaurants. With Tom Douglas, she co-authored Seattle Kitchen, which received the James Beard Award in 2001.
Earlier in her career, Estes worked in a variety of mission-driven roles, including positions at Share Our Strength and the White House. At Share our Strength, she organized and led a direct service program for chefs in the hunger relief, now known as Cooking Matters. She also ran the kitchen at Glide Memorial in San Francisco serving up to 3,000 people a day. At the White House, she was an intern working on Hillary’s healthcare bill in the Clinton Administration. Last year, she also cycled 300 miles for No Kid Hungry with Chef’s Cycle to raise 2 million dollars with 275 other chefs.
Estes’s work has been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Gourmet, Food & Wine, Rolling Stone, Sunset, Wine Spectator, Bon Appetit, Art Culinaire, San Francisco Chronicle, Travel + Leisure, Elle (Japan & Mexico), Luxury, LA Times, Zagat, Michelin and more. Duskie and John have been featured on the cover of Wine Spectator and in a California Commercial with Thomas Keller, Doug Keene, Suzanne Goin, and Guy Fieri.
No stranger to television, Estes was selected to compete on Food Network’s Next Iron Chef, seasons 3 and 5 and serves as a judge on Food Network’s Guy’s Grocery Games. She and Stewart have been featured on Food Network’s Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives, as well as numerous PBS shows.
Estes and Stewart have two daughters, Brydie (born 2001) and Mackenzie (born 2002), who inspired the name for their farm, MacBryde Farm. On their farm, they raise rabbits, chickens, ducks, sheep, pigs, and goats.
She is thrilled to take her career back in the direction of fighting food insecurity, especially at the exact time when it is needed most. Gleaning with Farm to Pantry feels like everybody wins. First and foremost it gets the most nutrient rich foods to those who need it. It helps farmers not waste during this food distribution and labor breakdown we are in right now. It does all this work with volunteers. Want to join us? GIVE your time or your money or your food here: farmtopantry.org
Duskie Estes recognized as a local Sonoma County Hero! Article Here
Kelly Conrad
Community Outreach &
Development Director
Born and raised in Portland, Oregon, Kelly Conrad stayed in the Northwest to attain her undergraduate degree. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in Business Administration & Marketing with a minor in English & Professional Writing from the University of Puget Sound in Washington. After completing the Wine Marketing post-graduate program at Cal Poly, Kelly went on to work for such wineries as EOS Estate Winery in Paso Robles, Cambria Winery & Vineyard in Santa Maria, Sebastiani Vineyards & Winery in Sonoma and E&J Gallo Winery in Healdsburg, as well as several other domestic and international wineries.
Conrad is a Certified Specialist of Wine, holds a Spanish Wine Certification and qualified to be a Spanish Wine Educator by the Wine Academy of Spain. She was awarded the Robert Parker, Jr. Scholarship for Further Industry Education, which she applied to completing Mastering Wine I & II, as well as Spirits and Distillation Training.
Kelly has served on the Board of Directors for Women for WineSense, as Editor for the Academy of Wine Communications, is a member of the American Institute of Wine & Food and the American Marketing Association. She has also served as a speaker and panel member for several organizations/conferences, including the International Bar Association and the Wine Industry Financial Symposium.
As a devoted member of her community, Conrad is involved in fundraising for Healdsburg public schools and volunteers for various outreach organizations, government surplus distributions and food banks. At one time, she even volunteered as a “cat-cuddler.” Kelly says that proves she will do anything to help her community because she is not a big fan of cats, and apparently, the feeling is mutual, as evidenced by scratches and blood loss post volunteer stints.
After a 20-year public relations and marketing career in the wine industry, Conrad felt compelled to apply her professional talents to the nonprofit sector. She commented, “It was actually all the wonderful philanthropy the wine industry is involved in that piqued my interest in wanting to join forces with those organizations. I have always loved what I do but felt life nudging me in a different direction. I was yearning to apply what I do to help make some real change in the place I live and raise my children.” With Farm to Pantry looking to expand their offered services at a time when the community needs them most, Kelly felt her communications and media expertise could be best put to use with them. “I have always held Farm to Pantry in high regard and respect their board leadership; having a chance to help tell their story and elevate their profile as they spread their wings is truly an honor for me and feels like such a natural fit,” Conrad adds.
Kelly enjoys being active but can often be caught curled up in a quiet place with a book. She has an inexplicable obsession with Greece (even though she has never been there) and loves playing board games, cards, tennis and “hoops” with her kids: Kathryn (18) and Cooper, Jr. (14). Kelly is a self-proclaimed culinary hedonist, who is painfully aware that she cannot cook, but loves food and exploring flavors, aromas and textures, savoring every bite. She gets downright giddy when she has the opportunity to dine out and cherishes the experience. She gets even more giddy at the thought of everyone in the world having full bellies and feeling nourished from our earth’s bounty. Archived Career Press Release
Shelley Trimm
Operations Manager
Shelley Trimm has been an executive in the medical device design and development (D&D) industry for the last 30 years. Shelley was Vice President of Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Affairs and Quality Assurance for multiple different industry leaders, including Medtronic. Her true passion and talent, however, blossomed when she directed her focus to small D&D start-up companies where innovation was the focal point.
During this career chapter, Shelley was responsible for bringing together highly talented individuals with very diverse backgrounds and skillsets (engineers, physicians, nurses, sales/marketing/manufacturing people) to create disciplined, fully-functional teams. These hubs were responsible for bringing breakthrough technology to the marketplace, ensuring efficiency through all stages from design completion and testing/clinical trials to pushing products through the regulatory process and final market adaptation. Shelley managed multiple million-dollar budgets and reported directly to CEO’s and Board of Directors.
She is very excited to refocus, once again, her unique expertise and adapt them to the nonprofit industry. Trimm was honored as a “Rockstar Volunteer” for Farm to Pantry through the Center for Volunteer and Nonprofit Leadership in April of 2021 before she accepted a position with F2P the following year. In Shelley’s words, “I am so excited to be given the opportunity to work with the incredible Farm To Pantry team and to support this vital mission of bringing un-utilized produce to Sonoma County residents challenged with food injustice.”
Claudia de la Pena
Operations Coordinator
Claudia’s career has been rooted in gardening and service from the very start. With her experience at Green String Institute, Oak Hill Farm, Growing Together Farm and Petaluma Seed Bank, she has designed, planted and maintained sustainable gardens, worked with and educated children & adults with developmental disabilities in gardens and farms and has been a valuable resource and consultant for farming practices and gardening inquiries.
Claudia has conducted school tours, education sessions and workshops for farm maintenance and is a dedicated Sonoma County Black Forum volunteer. Her greenhouse management skills, farming expertise and friendly disposition are prized and valued in her position at Farm to Pantry.
When she is not engaged in serving her community, you can find Claudia visiting local bookstores, hiking or taking in a movie at the local theaters.
Samantha Arenas
Office Coordinator
Samantha is a Sonoma County local and a recent Sonoma State graduate. Arenas earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Geography, Environment & Planning and Spanish. During the past two years, Samantha has been interning at a nonprofit farm in Petaluma, learning about food resilience and community outreach.
“Sam is a really grounding touchstone for this incredibly dynamic and busy team; she does a fantastic job of keeping us organized,” Kelly Conrad said. They are passionate about sustainable farming and food justice. Samantha enjoys being outdoors, reading and spending time with family and friends.