Mary Godnick

Mary Godnick, Senior Marketing Consultant

WESTPORT, NY

Food Systems Marketing, Farm Marketing, SEO, Ads

I grew up in Upstate New York in a town known for having “more cows than people",  giving me an early understanding of where food comes from and the many challenges that farmers face. 

After leaving my hometown, I earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Public Relations from SUNY Oswego. I went on to work at a top SEO agency in Syracuse, where I gained expertise in search engine optimization and developed comprehensive campaigns for multi-million dollar clients.  

Feeling called back to a more rural landscape, I moved to the Adirondacks in 2016 to help the Adirondack Council, a local non-profit organization, modernize its communications approach. I used Google Ads, SEO, Meta ads, email, and social media marketing to increase the impact of their advocacy efforts. It was through my work amplifying their climate-smart farming program that I was bitten by the farm and food systems bug.

Simultaneously, I began growing a diversified half-acre kitchen garden on a friend’s farm stay. As a person who loved to cook, I was not satisfied with the limited, overpriced, and wilted offerings at the small grocery store in my rural town — so I learned to grow and preserve things myself.

I followed this interest in local food and farming to my next role with Cornell Cooperative Extension, where I worked for 5 years to grow the Adirondack Harvest program. In that role, I worked with a network of 200+ farmers, farmers’ market managers, local food retailers, and partners to expand awareness and purchasing of Adirondack-grown products. I undertook many responsibilities, including website development, content writing, SEO, digital advertising, social media, and email marketing. I also applied for and managed programs for large competitive state, federal, and private grants.

During this time, I established my farm garden as a business, and the Creative Kitchen Garden has been a community gathering space and source of you-pick vegetables, cut flowers, and culinary and medicinal herbs since.

Today, I am proud to be part of the talented team at Grapevine, and I am eager to support food systems initiatives and farms across the country. I am excited to take the marketing off your to-do list so you can concentrate on what you love to do — farming and serving your community!