Who we are

Village Harvest is a volunteer run organization.  Everyone donates their time, talents and personal resources to strengthen our community.

Among the hundreds of volunteers have been involved in our Harvesting for the Hungry events are a few key individuals that keep Village Harvest running and growing.

Joni T. Ohta Diserens

Joni is the ring leader that keeps the Village Harvest running.  Joni works for HP and volunteers as Founder and Executive Director for Village Harvest.  Joni grew up in Hawaii where the spirit of Ohana (family) makes every mango or lychee tree a community resource each family shares and enjoys.  Joni's passion is connecting sources of abundance to points of scarcity.  By looking to what we already have, we could solve local hunger with local food.

Heather Dooley

Heather is our harvesting program coordinator and keeps our Harvesting for the Hungry program running 365 days a year.  She is an avid cook and gardener in her spare time when she's not working on community solar projects and supporting her son's water polo team.  Heather believes that the key to staying healthy is staying active and eating fresh, local produce.  Heather also leads the Tuesday, San Jose based team.

Karen Hurst

Karen is a Village Harvest board member and the leader of the Sunday, Mountain View based team.  An avid gardener, taking over lawns everywhere to grow edibles.  Karen and her husband also can and dehydrate and cook from the garden.  Karen teaches microbiology at the local community colleges and also volunteers with a number of other gardening and community organizations.  Even with a busy schedule she keeps a constant smile and enthusiasm.

Susan Osofsy

Susan is the leader of our Palo Alto events with Valley of Hearts Delight and often for other special events.  She's co-director of Valley of Heart's Delight which celebrates and connects people to their local sources of food.  In this case food literally in people's own backyards!  Susan's entire backyard is landscaped with edibles which she grows organically.  She is a model of the celebration of abundance and sharing with her community.

Rosemary Stasek

As an ex-elected official, Rosemary has great insight and support for programs that benefit communities.  She volunteers as an advisor, harvester, web-developer and jammin' team member for Village Harvest.  Rosemary is also an award-winning preserver and a terrific instructor on the art of preserving.  As with all of the people involved in Village Harvest, she wears many hats.  See www.stasek.com for her many projects, awards and accomplishments. 

Craig Diserens

A marketing and product development consultant to entrepreneurial companies and most notably Joni's best friend and supporter (and spouse).  Craig volunteers as Village Harvest's business advisor, full-service IT department and Secretary/Treasurer.