Meet the Nourish Staff
Pete Ritchie, Executive Director
Pete has a background in community development and social policy. As executive director, Pete is responsible with the board and staff team for focusing Nourish Scotland’s work where it can be most effective. This includes engaging with policy-makers and stakeholders as well as working for change from the bottom-up with grassroots groups. Pete is a first-generation farmer. For over 20 years he ran Whitmuir Organics with his partner Heather Anderson.
Anna Chworow, Deputy Director
Anna‘s background is in community development, systems thinking and third sector governance. She is interested in using thinking tools and participatory methods to help achieve lasting change. She joined Nourish in 2017. She supports development of long-term strategy and scopes new areas of work. When not at Nourish, you’ll find her in the nearest art gallery or pottering around the garden.
Abigail McCall, Project Officer
Abigail helps coordinate Nourish’s Public Diners project. She is passionate about bolstering and supporting a strong movement for this new piece of social infrastructure, and is responsible for facilitating a participatory approach to designing and eventually implementing these diners. Abigail has a background in investigative journalism, food security and human rights. Before coming to Nourish, she was in Eastern Indonesia working with farmers to understand the role that food systems play in various independence/secessionist movements happening across the region.
Diana Carolina Garduño Jiménez, Senior Food Justice Officer
Diana (Dee-ah-nah), she / they, leads Nourish’s work on the role of aquatic foods in food systems change. She also manages a 7 organisation partnership pushing for an agroecological transition in Scotland in policy and practice. Diana also co-delivers the Meaningful Participation Panel, a panel on experts by experience of participation, who advice Nourish and others on how to best embed participation processes in decision-making. Their work takes a decolonial and justice-centred approach with an interest in creative facilitation methods. Outside of Nourish you can find her dancing or having the slight suspicion that their sourdough starter might really be dead this time.
Irina Martin, Senior Project Officer
Irina co-delivers Nourish’s Dignity in Practice project. Her background is in community development, promoting healthy eating and social engagement. She is passionate about good food, building communities, the environment and social inclusion. She is an advocate for Zero Waste Scotland and works alongside other community organisations towards a fairer food system. She recently joined Nourish to work on the Dignity Practice project. She is from Bolivia but studied in Aberdeen and London, lived and worked in New Zealand, London, Inverness, Edinburgh, and currently Glasgow. Her graduate and post-graduate studies focused on gender, politics and social movements.
Lewis Borrowman, Finance and Data Officer
Lewis manages our finances and data, joining Nourish in late 2022. He is from Edinburgh and his academic background is in economics, moving on to work in Ethical Investment. He is passionate about working somewhere that makes a positive and material difference in the world. He also enjoys handling complicated spreadsheets and likes when things add up to zero. Outside of the workplace he is a long-suffering Dundee United and Scotland football fan.
Miesbeth Knottenbelt, Project Officer
Miesbeth joined our team in 2017 to manage the Making a Living from Local Food Programme. Currently the main focus of her work is the Scottish Organic Stakeholders Group, a Scottish Government funded Cash First Project with eight Local Authorities, and other bits and pieces.
Before joining Nourish, Mies worked for more than 20 years in universities setting up, researching and running staff- and student- teaching support; worked for The Bike Station promoting cycling in North Edinburgh for a while, and did a lot of telephone counselling for Parentline (Children1st). She has an active role in supporting Spokes The Lothian Cycle Campaign and keenly accompanies developments in the active travel (alongside the food and drink) policy worlds. Mies works part-time, generally over five long mornings.
Simon Kenton-Lake, Senior Officer
Simon leads on Nourish’s work on food partnerships, bringing together public, private and third sector stakeholders to collaborate across local and regional food systems. His background is in behaviour change responding to the climate emergency, including network support and effective partnership working. He is passionate about food and when not growing, eating or cooking, he likes to run up hills and sit in pubs.
Cici Zhong, Project Support Officer
Cici is the latest member of the team, joining Nourish in 2024. She has an MSc in Food Security and an interdisciplinary Social Sciences background, with an interest in the role of food everywhere in society, from sustainable transformations to creating a sense of community and belonging. Working alongside Irina, she provides support for the Dignity in Practice project. She loves all things food: outside of Nourish, she spends most of her time experimenting in the kitchen or dreaming up new recipes to try.