Staff & Board

Elyse Yerrapathruni

Executive Director

Elyse joined the Rolling Harvest team in 2023 and was named Executive Director to begin her tenure on January 1, 2024. Elyse is passionate about advocacy and outreach at the intersection of food justice, environmental stewardship, and regenerative agriculture. She graduated from The Pennsylvania State University with a Master of Science in Nutrition and worked in the hospitality industry for ten years before starting a family.

While volunteering with her children on a local farm in 2012, she realized the significance of gleaning as a means to bridge the gap between nutrition insecurity and food waste, thus inspiring a transition to a career focused on equitable food access and food system reform. Elyse worked as the Program Director for New Jersey Farmers Against Hunger for nine years before moving to Bucks County. When she’s not working with the amazing RHFR team, Elyse can usually be found on her small farmstead in Pipersville, where she lives with her husband and three teenage sons.

elyse@rollingharvest.com

Jamie McKnight

Program and Development Director

Jamie joined Rolling Harvest Food Rescue as Program and Development Director in July 2015, bringing with her invaluable nonprofit and agriculture experience along with a commitment to food justice.

From 2007 through 2014, Jamie served as the Director of Teens 4 Good, a Philadelphia-based, youth-led nonprofit program addressing the issues of poverty, urban blight, and the lack of accessible fresh produce in many Philadelphia neighborhoods. As Director, she worked together with youth and city resources to develop and sustain the program.

Jamie also served as a Philadelphia Green Advisory Board member from 2003 to 2014, as an Advisory Board member to Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS) and was on the Advisory Board for the City Harvest Growers Alliance. In 2009, she was honored by Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter and the Philadelphia Phillies as a Champion in the Community in 2009, and then served on Mayor Nutter’s Food Policy Council from 2012 to 2014.

jmcknight@rollingharvest.org

Edie Kwasnoski

Nutrition Educator

When confronted with raising two children in an era of childhood obesity, Edie shifted priorities. Previous successful careers in economic development and corporate sales were eclipsed by a new drive to learn, share and inspire better health for her family and her community. Edie graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition (NYC) in 2007. She later completed a Graduate Certificate in Developing Healthy Communities from Tufts University – Freidman School of Nutrition and a Certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University. In 2017, Edie earned a Certificate in Nonprofit Management from LaSalle University. She is also a member of the PA Nutrition Education Network.

Edie actively volunteers for several regional nonprofits and serves as Board Member for the Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank and Executive Committee Member for a large, local food pantry. She enjoys bicycling beautiful Bucks County with her husband, Joe.

ekwasnowski@rollingharvest.org

Vicki Sarnoff

Nutrition Educator

Vicki Sarnoff, CHC, is a Nutrition Educator for Rolling Harvest Food Rescue, Wellness Advocate, Personal Chef whose passions includes Food as Medicine, Therapeutic Grade Essential Oils, Bach Flower Essences, Reiki, and Patient Advocacy for the past 20 years. She is a Certified Health Coach having graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition with a certification from Columbia University Teachers College. She sees clients in her New Hope office, offers telephone consults, organic medicinal cooking classes, and lectures on the use of therapeutic essential oils for people and their animals.

vsarnoff@rollingharvest.org

Brian Strumfels

Food Distribution Manager and Cooler Commando

Our new Food Distribution Manager, Brian Strumfels, grew up in Hainesport, NJ, surrounded by farmland, but never getting to know farming until 30 years later. He graduated Rutgers Camden in 2006 with a degree in Fine Arts. In 2009 he decided to volunteer with Americorps with NJ Farmers Against Hunger, the statewide gleaning organization. He was hired after his volunteership and became a full-time employee of the organization. He comes to Rolling Harvest with 13 years of experience, gleaning and distributing produce, building relationships with farmers and keeping the trucks on the road. Most of all, he learned how to get nutritious food to those who need it the most.

bstrumfels@rollingharvest.org

Lindsay Troyer

Volunteer & Community Outreach Manager

Lindsay (she/her) brings her food and farm policy advocacy background, her diversified vegetable growing experiences and her passion for serving her community to our incredible volunteer network and growing areas of need. She currently serves as the Policy Coordinator for the Food and Farm Policy Community Action Team at Slow Food USA and holds a leadership position with Slow Food Philly and co-chairs the Hunger and Nutrition Coalition of Bucks County.

Lindsay has worked in the intersections of food production, food service, food education and food policy throughout her professional career. She spent her undergraduate years running CSA programs and community gardens while completing a B.S. in Food Policy and Sustainable Agriculture. Before, during and after owner/operating a sustainable-focused, locally-sourced cafe, she consulted for food makers, food growers and food markets up until beginning a graduate degree in Food and Agriculture Policy in Bucks County, PA in 2019. The last 5 years, she worked in free-food production and nonprofit Hunger Relief in the Philadelphia region, running a Community Food Program that supported multiple food pantries and a community garden education program. She ultimately hopes to influence regional and federal policy to decrease the immense inequity in food and farmland access, and to protect federal programs that feed our nations hungry.

ltroyer@rollingharvest.org