Staff

Tara Pereira - Executive Director

As Executive Director of Vermont Fresh Network, Tara works to advance relationships among farmers, chefs, and consumers to grow markets and eat more locally grown food. This includes managing the DigInVT.com platform, a website devoted to promoting authentic culinary and agricultural experiences in Vermont and sharing the stories of the farmers, chefs, makers and many others are members of the local food community in Vermont. Tara has worked in marketing and communications for over 25 years. She began her career in the San Francisco Bay Area producing television focused on farm to table restaurants and the local products of Northern California. After moving to Vermont, Tara worked with Vermont nonprofits and small businesses to develop and implement their marketing and communication strategy plans. Most recently in 2022, Tara completed a food studies certificate program at the Anna Tasca Lanza center for Sicilian food culture and knowledge in Sicily, Italy. "Cook the Farm" studies the varying geography, food customs and traditions found around the diverse island of Sicily.

Peggy Briggs - Special Projects

Peggy joins Vermont Fresh Network with a focus on connecting Vermont chefs, farmers and food producers by doing what she knows best: building community across food system constituents and creating quality content to tell their stories. Prior to this post, she created a website, Farm and Field notes, that champions Vermont farmers and food producers with a blog, podcasts and videos. Peggy served as Chair of The New England Farm and Sea to Campus Network communications and outreach working group (a subset of FINE), and has worked with Kiva, The Jamie Oliver Food Foundation and Martha Stewart. With over 25 years of writing, video production and project management experience in both the private and public sectors, she also holds master’s degrees from Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and NYU Steinhardt Food Studies. Peggy loves exploring new places with an agritourism bent and can be found in her free time cooking up seasonal Vermont farm products on a big green stove in a quiet camp on Lake Champlain.