About
People
Corner Farm Village, LLC, is a local business originally formed by Neva Hassanein, Kim Murchison, and Josh Slotnick in 2021. They developed the vision together. Today, Hassanein is the sole owner and manager of the LLC.
Neva Hassanein: Neva was a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana from 2000 to 2025. She is passionate about the sustainability and resilience of our food system, as well as creative approaches to land use and farmland protection. In addition to her scholarship and teaching, Neva has been actively engaged in civic affairs in Missoula and across the state. Among other activities, she served on the Missoula City-County Consolidated Planning Board for six years, and co-founded both the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition and Grow Montana. Corner Farm Village has given Neva an opportunity to bring her existing knowledge together with new learning and innovation.
Ellie Costello: Ellie’s first season running her business – Trust Land Farm – was 2024. She was no stranger to the farm where she once interned for Clark Fork Organics. Today, she is building on the legacy of her mentors.
Since 2011, Ellie has spent her warm seasons growing produce with small-scale sustainable farms from the Bitterroot northward to the Mission valleys. Exploring how to create resilient food systems, she earned an M.S. from the University of Montana in Environmental Studies. Ellie has also grown produce for her business, Black Bear Soups & Produce on a series of leased farm sites. Most recently, she served as the Operations & Finance Director for Farm Connect Montana, but her career spans a wide range. She has worked in trail maintenance, agriculture, arts centers, tool libraries, yoga studios, environmental NGOs, and craft beverage businesses.
In 2023, AgWest Farm Credit awarded Ellie a new producer grant, and she also received a Montana “Growth Through Agriculture” grant to support the infrastructure for expanding the farm stand to a permanent store and cafe. As the Corner Farm Village vision becomes a reality, Ellie is interested in diversifying the operations to include year-round services to Missoulians through expanded infrastructure.
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Partners
Corner Farm Village gratefully acknowledges the creativity, expertise, and commitment of our partners:
MMW Architects is well recognized for their leadership in design, environmental performance, and historic preservation. MMW’s Don MacArthur and Ryan Bundy have partnered with Corner Farm Village to create a site design that protects the farmland, carefully places the buildings on poorer soil, and will create sustainable community living.
Trust Montana is a statewide community land trust working to build up a permanently affordable stock of agricultural properties, commercial spaces, and quality homes for Montanans. Through a partnership with Trust Montana, Corner Farm became the first agricultural property in Montana to be protected through a community land trust. Learn more on the “Farm” page.