About

People

Located at the intersection of Tower St. and S. Third St. W. in Orchard Homes near Missoula, this property is currently owned by Corner Farm Village, LLC, a local business partnership. Neva Hassanein, Kim Murchison, and Josh Slotnick set up the LLC in 2021, and developed the vision together. Today, Hassanein is the sole owner and manager of Corner Farm Village.

Neva Hassanein: Neva has been a Professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Montana since 2000. 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 has established Trust Land Farm on the property. Her first season as the lead farmer is 2024, but she is no stranger to the operation where she once interned. Clark Fork Organics was the first farm Ellie ever worked for, and she is excited to continue 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 the Community Food & Agriculture Coalition, 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, including:

WGM Group is a comprehensive engineering, planning, and design firm. WGM’s Jeff Smith and Jamie Erbacher have steadfastly assisted Corner Farm Village as we have navigated the opportunities and challenges of this ambitious, unique project.
MMW Architects is well recognized for their leadership in design, environmental performance, and historic preservation. MMW’s Don MacArthur, Andrew Clark, 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. Corner Farm Village will be the first agricultural property protected through a community land trust in Montana, and we’re proud to partner with Trust Montana to make farmland available and affordable.