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Meet the Candidates!

Keith Bellairs:  I have been a Hardwick resident for going on five years, and Buffalo Mountain Food Co-op is one of the reasons we moved here. I helped start a natural foods co-op in the mid 70s when we had a farm in Minnesota. When we moved to the Twin Cities I was on the board of North Country Co-op in Minneapolis. Later I have been a member at other co-ops. So I have been involved in the co-op movement as a member, working member and director for about 40 years.

I am finishing up my first 2 year term as a member of the co-op’s board. For a time over the last couple of years I have worked on the co-op’s computers.

I am 75 years old and retired from a career in IT. Before that I worked as a lawyer. Over the years I have earned degrees from Dartmouth College, the University of Michigan, and the University of Minnesota. I practiced corporate law and then small town law in a town about the size of Hardwick. Later I was an IT consultant with clients in insurance and technology such as 3M and IBM.

My wife Judy and I are also Canadian citizens (as well as US). We have both been environmental activists for decades. In Minnesota Judy worked for the Sierra Club and I was the Sierra Club’s Minnesota chapter political chair. In Canada Judy was a volunteer with the Sierra Club of Canada and I was on the finance committee and the national board of the Sierra Club of Canada. Judy is now volunteering with the Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club and is working to help support Chip Troiano’s bill banning retail sale of neonicotinoid pesticides.

Heather Davis:  Heather has spent twenty-five years working on food security issues, agriculture, community development, and economic justice issues. She holds a Master of Arts in Sustainable Development from the SIT Graduate Institute and a Bachelor of Arts in Anthropology from the University of Pittsburgh. Heather is passionate about contributing toward creating a world where everyone has access to their basic needs so that they can not only survive, but also thrive. She is currently offering consulting services dedicated to writing, research, developing and implementing systems for program monitoring and evaluation for domestic non-profit organizations, socially-responsible businesses, and international NGO’s to assist them in providing the best possible services and improve performance.

Steven Gorelick: I live on a small homestead in Walden with my wife (Suzanna), two children (Ezra and Talia), four goats, three cows, a horse, a dog, three cats and a fluctuating number of chickens. We grow much of our own food, and sell frozen blueberries to the Co-op. I’ve been a Co-op member for more than 20 years, and served on the Board from 2011 until 2017. I’d like to return to the Board at this time of transition: the collective management structure has given way to a General Manager, the register discount will become a patronage dividend, and the Co-op faces mainstream competitors that sell many of the same products we do. If elected to the Board, I’ll be a voice for maintaining the Co-op’s role as a linchpin of the local food economy, a trusted source for healthy foods, and a good place to work.

David Ludt:  The Buffalo Mountain Co-op is a cozy little business competing with two similarly sized food stores in town as well as Amazon and all kinds of other entities that we couldn’t even imagine in the 1970’s. Lots of hard work and luck got us this far and I’m honored to have served on the board for these past 4 years. We have a great board and staff and membership.

Here at Buffalo Mountain we elect regular, semi-skilled civilians to run our precious little enterprise, probably because history has a sense of humor. I like being in on a good joke and I will proudly serve again, no matter how few of us cast ballots. Local food and local work is an essential path in preserving our sovereignty.

I grew up in Onondaga County, New York. I like snow and buttercup squash and black currants. I work as a carpenter and journeyman philosopher.

Katrina Razionale:  I am a California native who has lived in Vermont since 2011, in Hardwick for 6 of those years. I’ve done rogue bookkeeping for a number of local food producers, worked with Jasper Hill Farm for four years developing their e-commerce program, and am currently the Development Manager at the Center for an Agricultural Economy. I’m interested in food systems, particularly at the local level, and ways that an agrarian community like ours and local producers can provide mutual support. I’m also a parent of two young children in Hardwick schools, home gardener, and a hobby potter.