Our Team
Meet OUR TEAM
Linda Plumer is Project Manager for Plates for Change. After serving on the No Kid Hungry board for more than 15 years and holding a variety of roles, she is excited about moving forward with this new non-profit endeavor. Linda has been a Portsmouth resident for more than 20 years and has been fortunate enough to have lived in different states around the country. She has unfortunately seen the hunger issue for children regardless of location. This issue is both underfunded and underrepresented. Her hope, with Plates for Change, is to grow awareness and effect policy change going forward in the Seacoast, Southern Maine and the State of New Hampshire.
Jess Michaud is on the leadership team for Plates for Change. She started volunteering for No Kid Hungry more than 10 years ago and was on the NKH board for 9 years, serving in various roles. She is thrilled to be part of this dynamic team as it moves forward with its community-focused non-profit endeavor to end hunger in the Seacoast. Jess feels fortunate to have been a resident of the Seacoast of New Hampshire for almost 15 years. When she began volunteering for NKH she was working as a nutritionist for the WIC Nutrition program and saw how much need there truly was in the community. She is honored to be a part of this group of people who all volunteer their efforts to make sure that every child has the opportunity to grow up without hunger and food insecurity.
Most people know Laura Stewart as ‘Stewie’. She has been involved with No Kid Hungry for 10+ years – initially as a volunteer and then as a board member for 8+ yrs – which includes three years on the Los Angeles board for their Taste of the Nation event. She has been honored to work with this passionate board and dedicated volunteers to support the local community as it enters an exciting time with its new endeavor - Plates for Change. Not only will the organizations continue feeding hungry children, it will work to change policy at the state level. Stewie’s role will be to work towards policy change and serve as the Co-Chair for the Beverage Committee.
Nancy Lehoux
Nancy Lehoux is the Tickets Chairperson for Plates for Change. She was a member of the No Kid Hungry board for four years and is excited to be bringing all sheI learned from that experience to this new non-profit organization. As a high school educator, she sees students every day who struggle to learn as they have food insecurity issues. It is sometimes more difficult to address the needs of high school students as they are often embarrassed to admit that their family cannot provide adequate meals. She is honored to be giving back to the Seacoast and greater New Hampshire communities as a part of this wonderful organization as it works to end childhood hunger.
Sharon Keeler joined the board of No Kid Hungry in 2018 and serves on the marketing and media team. A New Hampshire native, she left in 2005 for a job in Arizona, but could not stay away and returned in 2015 to join the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics and settled in Portsmouth--a dream come true. She absolutely loves the seacoast and wanted to find a way to give back to the community. Sharon attended many Taste of the Nation events at Strawbery Banke and felt this was an organization with a mission she could support and help advance with her knowledge and skills in communication and marketing. She is excited to see Plates for Change grow and work with its wonderful board of volunteers as they tackle the very important issue of food insecurity.
Kathy Bachmann is beyond excited to be on the Plates for Change Leadership Team! She was on the board of No Kid Hungry for 9 years and believes passionately that every child should have access to nutritious food they need to learn and thrive. She has worked in the college textbook publishing industry since college. In her “side hustle” as a health coach, she teaches kids and adults the benefits of eating a whole foods plant based diet, cooking at home and living an active lifestyle. Kathy has three kids and likes to spend her free time hiking, paddleboarding, or exploring the world.
Kelly Donohue
Kelly Donohue is happy to be part of our local start up team. She was an active board member of "No kid Hungry" for the past 17 years. She has the passion and dedication to continue to volunteer with the "Plates for Change" organization to energize the commitment to help feeding hungry children and the food insecure in our local area. Kelly enjoys each summer bringing together the Seacoast's hottest chefs to donate their time, talent and more for our premier culinary event to raise critical funds for our local grant recipients.
Maggie Sutherland is a born and raised Seacoast enthusiast. She feels very honored to be on the Plates for Change social media team, and loves using social platforms to educate the community about the work their doing to end hunger on the Seacoast and beyond.
She feels fortunate to have joined this hard-working, passionate team three years ago, and is excited to see what they can accomplish together in the organization’s new chapter as Plates for Change!
Scott & Karen logan
Tricia dearville
Tricia DeArville joined the Plates for Change team in 2023. She has lived in and around the Seacoast for over 35 years. Having experienced food insecurity in her lifetime, she is passionate about making a positive impact in the community and being a strong contributor to ending childhood hunger.
Beth Lindquist
Beth is the Corporate Sponsor Co-Chair working with the amazing local sponsors who make the Taste event happen. She has lived on the Seacoast for 20 years and has been on the No Kid Hungry, now Plates for Change Board for over 15 years. Beth, along with the other board members, has a passion for helping to end food insecurity in the Seacoast and surrounding communities and commends the generosity of the corporate sponsors and the incredible work being done by grant recipients to mitigate childhood hunger is inspiring.
Liz Levey-Pruyn
Having been on the prior Taste board since 2006, Liz had the opportunity to volunteer on almost every committee helping to put on this and other events. As a local Realtor she we have a moral obligation to support the communities we serve, especially our most vulnerable citizens. Liz feels strongly that no child should ever have to experience food insecurity and should have the opportunity to thrive. She is committed to doing her small part to help put an end to childhood hunger!
Nicole Ciancarelli
Nicole is a new member to Plates for Change but has been a loyal attendee of the Taste event for years. Nicole is involved in the community as a local swim coach and instructor. She is also a teacher where she sees the impact of students who have food insecurity. She is excited to be a part of the board and work towards finding solutions for families in need.
JEANETTE BONHAM
Jeanette Bonham, better known as “Jett”, served on the Portsmouth No Kid Hungry Board for 25 years. Her current position on the Plates for Change board is on the Leadership Team. She works is as a System’s Analyst working for Lincoln Financial. Jett joined the group based on wanting to be involved in something that related to food insecurity. When her son was born, she went on the WIC program because she could not afford to feed her son and herself. To this day, 45 years later, she can still remember the exact food items she was able to receive with that voucher in the supermarket. Those items sustained Jett and her son for more than a year. Through her voluntary efforts, she is proud that she can now have a small effect for food-insecure people in the community she resides in. Plus, Jett says she is Italian and, “With us, it’s all about the food!”
CAITLYN HASSETT
KRISTEN B. WARD