Kristen Spaulding Rabourdin spent over 30 years concentrating on retail strategies, marketing, communications and community engagement with a strong focus in the food industry. Most recently, Kristen served on the development team for The Market at 25th, a Richmond-based grocery store which opened in April of 2019 in the underserved East End neighborhood, building not only the store, but partnerships to provide services and enhance the shopping experience for at-risk customers. As a former Mid-Atlantic Regional Field Marketing Team Leader with Whole Foods Market, she believes in the advancement of food innovation and the creation of a sustainable, healthy and accessible food system. Named All Star for 2014, she directed a marketing and community outreach program that contributed to a Best Executed Store award three years in succession in the Mid-Atlantic Region and a Top 10 store in the Company for 2012. Her collaborations include product development lectures for the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia for the Innovation Lab, developing a corporate culture with the Darden Business School Executive Education program, teaching and advising with the Community Investment Collaborative, and partnerships with the Virginia Federation of Food Banks, Charlottesville Food Justice Network, City Schoolyard Garden, and the Urban Agricultural Collective of Charlottesville.

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Kristen is currently the owner and operator of The Batesville Market, a historic country store and deli serving a diverse rural community. 

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Working to Level the Field

Throughout her 30+ years of professional experience, Kristen has worked predominantly in community engagement programs that address and find solutions for those in need. She has partnered with the City of Philadelphia’s Welfare to Work programs and incarcerated juvenile career path programs, experienced outreach efforts to inner city and impoverished rural Appalachian children, and has partnered with hunger relief programs for the past 16 years. Kristen has experienced first-hand grassroots community-driven efforts that create sustainable educational food and neighborhood gardening programs, urban farming programs and school-based experiential gardening initiatives. Her service on the Food Justice Network Planning Committee is formulated around collaboration to reach the goal of food access and food justice for all citizens.