Samantha Leslie
Samantha Leslie is the founder, Executive Director, and Market Manager of the Rabbit Valley Farmers Market in Ringgold, Georgia, where she has worked for nearly seven years to strengthen local food systems and build community connections. Driven by a desire to address food access gaps exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Samantha created a vibrant farmers market that bridges local producers and residents, while emphasizing inclusivity, collaboration, and sustainability. Her initiatives, such as the Nourish North Georgia program, ensure farmers are fairly compensated and excess produce is donated to local pantries, supporting both the community and local agriculture.
Before founding the market, Samantha had a career as a registered respiratory therapist and spent over a decade raising her eight children while homesteading, blogging about farm life, and leading community programs. She also served as a La Leche League state leader in Georgia for eight years, teaching childbirth and breastfeeding classes and fostering community support networks. These experiences laid the foundation for her work in community building and nonprofit management, combining her passion for agriculture with a strong commitment to service and equity.
Samantha’s professional philosophy centers on expanding access to healthy, locally grown food while cultivating collaborative, inclusive, and resilient public spaces. She manages all aspects of market operations—from grant writing, marketing, and sponsorships to vendor relations, insurance, and permits—ensuring the market thrives as both an economic and social hub. Through her work, Samantha continues to empower local farmers, promote food security, and nurture meaningful community connections across North Georgia.
• Urban Agriculture Certification
• Registered Respiratory Therapist
• Certificate in AI for Marketing and Fundraising
• Certified Farmers Market Manager
• Certificate in Digital Marketing and Fundraising
• Chattanooga State Community College- A.A.S.
• Chattanooga State Community College- A.S.
• La Leche League International
• Nourish North Georgia program - purchasing unsold farmers market produce at retail prices to donate to food pantries
What do you attribute your success to?
I think our success comes from our sense of teamwork that we have, not only among the organizers and volunteers, but also including our vendors in that teamwork framework. There is a very strong sense of community that we have created, and I think a lot of it can be attributed to our sense of service to each other. We've created a wonderful community in a rural town that pretty much shut down and didn't have anything going on downtown even before COVID. We were the first organization to really begin having this activity every weekend, and we're completely inclusive. We reach out to communities that otherwise wouldn't attend our event, and I think that has made us stronger, for sure.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is, especially when it comes to making a hard decision, just make your decision and stick with it. Don't buckle or be unsure about it. Once you get there, then you stick with it, unless there's some overwhelming facts that prove you wrong. This comes down to simple decisions too that are still hard to make, like should we close the market today because we've got an impending storm or we're under a heat advisory. Those decisions are really difficult to make because no matter what decision you make, you're gonna upset half the people. Half will be with you, half will be against you. So when it even comes to those decisions, I say, well, if I'm closing, I'm closing, and I'm sticking by that. And it all smooths itself out at the end.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I think, and I have found this not only in this industry, but with young women especially, you're doing more than you think. Don't doubt yourself. Go for it, and don't ever sit back and think, well, really what I'm doing isn't that big or that great. It really is. I think some of us were raised in a very patriarchal environment where we think what we're doing is not as important as what the men are doing over here, and it absolutely is. I think there has to be a mind shift change as far as that goes.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
The biggest challenge in the nonprofit world, honestly, is funding. Fundraising and grant writing plays a huge part. We're every day trying to think, how can we get money for this program? How can we do that? The second challenge would be supporting the farmers so that they can grow to meet up with the demand. We have a program called Nourish North Georgia that we started that allows us, with grant funding, to buy out all of the unsold produce at the end of the market day at their retail price, so that they get a fair price for it, and we donate it to the food pantry. Trying to find avenues to keep these farmers so that they can keep scaling up, because the demand grows every year for that produce, has been another challenge.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think having a strong work ethic is extremely important, especially in this industry, because you're working all the time and sometimes you see very little progress. But I think keeping that work ethic goes a long way. I think having integrity in everything you do is crucial, and that includes being inclusive, which is extremely important to me. Especially in this day and age, and the environment that we're running in right now, I feel like one of the most important things we could do is to collaborate. Organizing the community and being all-inclusive to everybody is extremely important, and I take that with me in all aspects of life. Being inviting and inclusive and welcoming has really been a huge contributor to the success of this market.