School of Medicine Columbia
Beverly Wilson, MPH
Co-Founder and Executive Director
Beverly Wilson, FoodShare’s Chief Inspiration Officer, is passionate about the need to solve issues around food access and affordability for disadvantaged and vulnerable communities. After organizing bulk buying produce groups within the community for many years, she turned her efforts towards developing a program that would expand fresh food access and affordability among communities that lacked access to quality food sources. Beverly has been with the University of South Carolina School of Medicine for over two decades where she’s been able to identify a unique opportunity to integrate lifestyle medicine into a clinic model. Her vision has inspired the FoodShare program to grow into the state-wide network it is today.
Gordon Schell, M.Ed.
Director of Marketing and Digital Strategies
Gordon joined the FoodShare team after a lengthy career in higher education administration and nonprofit association management. In 2017 he was looking for an opportunity to serve his local community in a more meaningful way and FoodShare was the answer. Through managing our social media, creating print/digital resources to tell the fresh food access story, developing and managing our various database infrastructures, and working closely with our state-wide partners to ensure they have the tools needed to be successful in serving their communities, Gordon enjoys the many opportunities available for collaboration and creativity. In his free time, you will likely find him enjoying cooking with his wife, reading books or spinning vinyl at home or planning the next trek somewhere across the country to see The Avett Brothers perform.
Melissa Lewie, MBA
Business Manager
Melissa joined the FoodShare team in August of 2020 as the Business Manager. She brings over 20 years of grant and management experience to the FoodShare table. Completing her MBA in 2013, Melissa’s focus is FoodShare’s bookkeeping and financial reporting, but she also enjoys working as FoodShare’s Human Resources contact. She considers herself a jack-of-all trades because she is always up for learning something new. Melissa believes we all can “feed a need” by lifting others up both physically and mentally to help achieve their goals. Melissa is an avid camper who enjoys nature.
Christa Demment González, MSN
Director of Culinary Medicine
Christa Demment González joins FoodShare as the new Director of Culinary Medicine after teaching and cooking in California, Maine, and the Caribbean. With a Master’s degree in Nutrition, she finds new ways to translate nutrition science into simple, mouth-watering recipes.
She’s been trained to hold space for all the discussion topics around changes in nutrition and guiding people past the obstacles to lifestyle behavior change. A dynamic, experiential cooking class is the way to learn and maintain healthy changes. Knowledge, empowerment and multi-disciplinary collaboration are the keys for treating and preventing chronic illness.
Christa brings over 15 years’ experience cooking in unique and challenging environments. You’ll find her in FoodShare’s new Teaching Kitchen designing delicious health classes for the community, working with the culinary medicine curriculum for medical professionals, and encouraging everyone to try something new on their plate.
She’ll also be helping FoodShare reach our Spanish-speaking communities. ¡Buen Provecho!
Kim Hollins
Veggie Rx Program Manager and Healthy Living Motivator
Kim Hollins joined the FoodShare team in August 2020 as the Program Coordinator for the Veggie Rx Program. She has significant experience coordinating programs focused on improving the quality of health for patients with chronic conditions. Kim works closely with physicians, healthcare practices and others in the community to ensure FoodShare’s Veggie Rx Program participants have access to healthy fruits and vegetables as they strive to improve their diet and health. She believes that each FoodShare Box is the right prescription for a better quality of life for each participant.
Gabriel Wilhelm
Community Outreach Coordinator and Fresh Food Evangelist
Gabriel joined the FoodShare Squad in July 2019. He spends his days igniting conversations about good healthy food and community engagement. His main focus is to expand the FoodShare program into rural communities outside of Richland County and to help grow more partner sites. He enjoys working with organizations serving rural populations because of the deep sense of community and commitment to bring fresh food access to every corner of South Carolina. With a background in minor league sports entertainment, Gabe keeps things fun at the office and the FoodShare Hub. When he’s not generating joy at FoodShare SC, you can find him bringing smiles to his loving wife and three rambunctious boys.
Jessica Little
Network Outreach Coordinator
Jessica joined the FoodShare family in February of 2023 as a network outreach coordinator. She specializes in connecting people with ideas, and is excited to grow the FoodShare network within the state of South Carolina. She comes from a farming background, has an entrepreneur spirit, and is passionate about sustainability and utilizing food as medicine. Jessica’s past life has included work in educational management, the natural health field, and teaching young musicians across the state as a classically trained flutist. She holds a Bachelor’s in Music with Emphasis in Education degree from the University of South Carolina, and has additional training in neuromuscular and massage therapy, beekeeping, herbalism, and Reiki. When not pouring herself into developing FoodShare SC, she is busy raising her two young boys with her husband in Chapin, and enjoys backcountry hiking, DIY projects, and gardening.
Adrian González
Network Outreach Coordinator
Adrian joined the FoodShare team in February of 2023. By day, Adrian specializes in connecting people through ideas and creating systems to encourage growth across the statewide network of FoodShare hubs. By night, Adrian is the frontman and lead singer of the high energy pop-rock band, The Regulars, and comes alive on-stage as an electrifying performer. Adrian is passionate about people and feeding a need in the local community. Before FoodShare, he worked for several churches and other non-profits and even started his own media company, which took him all over the world and gave experience in many different industries. In his free time, you can find Adrian planning his next adventure, writing a song or two on his guitar, and building a life with his wife, Allie.
Lilly Allen
Assistant Outreach Coordinator
Lilly joined the FoodShare team in January 2023. Graduating in 2020 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Public Health from the University of South Carolina, her priority is to grow partner site locations in the Midlands to help better serve the community. Working closely with potential partner sites, she is excited to go into the community to bring knowledge and resources to all about FoodShare. When she is not keeping busy with FoodShare, you can find her enjoying the outdoors with her 4-legged companion, Gus.
John Cumper
NeighborShare Program Coordinator
John Cumper joined the FoodShare team in May of 2022. On most days, you’ll find him in the field visiting participants in the NeighborShare program, which partners those experiencing barriers to reliable transportation with volunteers from within their neighborhoods who are willing to deliver their fresh fruit and vegetable boxes. John is passionate about his role in “feeding a need” by expanding access to fresh, affordable produce to those in the Columbia area. In his former life, he served as an Air Force enlisted aviator on C-130 Hercules aircraft.
Omme-Salma Rahemtullah, MA
Director of Advocacy and Policy
Omme started at FoodShare SC in February of 2021, to build FoodShare’s regional and national coalition participation, and provide policy direction for the organization. Omme works on building advocacy and energy around state-wide policies such as SNAP expansion and Healthy Bucks, and assists regional Hubs to engage with their elected officials at all levels. Omme has 15 years of community engagement work in food security, community media policy and programming, and an academic background in cultural studies and race.
Annette Duncan
Office Coordinator
Annette joined the FoodShare team in May 2021 as the Office Coordinator. She works directly with FoodShare clients in placing orders for healthy fruit and vegetable boxes. Annette is enthusiastic and passionate about her job! While clients strive to eat healthier; she makes sure they receive their much-needed produce boxes in a timely manner. Annette retired from AT&T and also has a degree as an Occupational Therapy Assistant. She is very active in her community with a focus on moving communities forward to the formulation of healthy status goals. Alongside FoodShare, Annette’s dedicated to serving the purpose of feeding a need in the community.
Carrie Draper, MSW
Co-Founder and Evaluator
Carrie Draper co-founded FoodShare South Carolina to expand access to fresh produce especially for people who receive SNAP. She is a Senior Research Associate in the Arnold School of Public Health’s Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior. There she oversees studies and guides implementation projects related to equitable food access, improving household and community food security, and strengthening nutrition assistance programs, including serving as the founding Principal Investigator of the University’s SNAP-Ed Implementing Agency. She supports evaluation activities of FoodShare to answer questions like, “Is the FoodShare model associated with improved household food security and dietary intake among customers?” and “What are the inputs, outputs, and outcomes of scaling up the FoodShare model around the state?”
