Mary Elizabeth Smithson is originally from Jackson, Mississippi and made her way to Nashville in 2017. Her original plan to get a post-grad degree in Sociology, after graduating from the University of Mississippi with a BA in Anthropology/Sociology in 2014, took an interesting twist when she completed three years of AmeriCorps programs. She got her start in the food world with two service years of FoodCorps in Oxford, Mississippi from 2015-2017 and fell in love with the work. While in Nashville, she juggled a few different jobs as a farm educator, an after-school garden instructor, and a meal prep cook before a stint in New Orleans at a meal prep company, where she managed the plating/packaging department. She returned to Nashville in August 2020, reconnecting with friends and spending more time on her hobbies, such as sewing and roller skating. She is thrilled to be in community with TNFP coworkers who are driven by food justice, sustainability, and alleviating hunger. Once the pandemic lets up, you'll be sure to find her at a music festival dancing to her favorite artists, traveling to new places to see what else is out there, or simply cooking in her kitchen with friends and family.
Allison Thayer, Director of Community Engagement
Allison grew up in Florida with a Spanish mother who loved (and excelled at!) cooking, which she absorbed from a young age. As a child, she would watch Emeril Live and emphatically mimic his famous “Bam!” when helping in the kitchen. She also cares deeply about nature, conservation, and sustainable food production, and spends as much of her ‘time off’ as possible exploring the outdoors. Since moving to Nashville in 2015, she has been steadily inserting herself into the local food system: as a regular CSA customer, a member of the Nashville Food Co-Op, an active participant in events focused on local food production and waste reduction, and most recently as a weekly volunteer on the Caney Fork Farms Vegetable Team.
Allison has a degree in English and Latin American Studies from the University of Notre Dame. She moved to Spain to teach English through the Fulbright Program, then on to Washington DC to work as a research consultant for postsecondary education institutions. The rest (and majority) of her career has been spent working in corporate strategy and operations at a multinational research and consulting firm. She is delighted to be making a career shift that allows her to focus on growing sustainable food systems and communities.
Outside of work Allison enjoys cooking, hiking, and spending time with her husband, child, and dog. She dreams of one day owning a tapas bar or an on-farm restaurant, as long as it doesn’t have to be profitable.