Mina was born and raised in Pennsylvania and attended Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia. Growing up her family spent most of their time cooking, gathering, and spending quality time surrounded by fresh food. This helped shape what eventually became her first career of being a chef. Traveling to Europe she worked on farms to learn more about growing food, markets, and biodynamic farming. When she returned to Philly she worked as the head dinner cook at a small cafe with a kitchen garden before moving to New Orleans in 2014. Moving here she really dug into the culinary world working at Commander’s Palace, Angeline, and Carmo among other restaurants before starting her own pop-up/catering company, BeetsNThyme.


Through BeetsNThyme she developed great relationships with local farmers, makers, and fishermen. This continued to deepen her love and knowledge of local foods and their importance to a thriving food system.


Through her work with SPROUT she is able to connect with people and growers at all levels, participate amazing coalitions, and continue to put her energy into feeding people in a different way. She is also an avid home gardener in her free time.