Margaret Hathaway and Karl Schatz are the co-founders of Community Plate. The wife and husband team are the co-creators and co-hosts of the “Cooking is Community” community cookbook podcast, and have collaborated on seven books on food and farming, including the memoir The Year of the Goat, the guide Living With Goats, two volumes of the Portland, Maine Chef’s Table cookbook, and the award-winning Maine Bicentennial Community Cookbook and Maine Community Cookbook, Volume 2. These books, plus 20 years developing a philosophy and practice around farming, hospitality, care, and community building, provided the inspiration and foundation for the creation of Community Plate and Story Sharing Potluck Suppers. Margaret, a writer, is a Kansas native and graduate of Wellesley College. Before leaving New York to take up goat farming, she worked in cookbook publishing and as manager of the original Magnolia Bakery. She serves on the boards of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) and the New England Farmers Union, and and as a judge for The Readable Feast cookbook competition. Karl, who also serves as Executive Director of Community Plate, was born and raised in Maine, received an undergraduate degree from Tufts University and his master’s in communications from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University. He is an award-winning journalist, photographer, and storyteller. Prior to goat farming, he worked at ABC Television and Time Magazine, and in Maine as Director of Aurora Photos. He serves on the boards of the Maine Coast Waldorf School and Northeast Storytelling. Since 2005, the couple has lived with their three daughters on Ten Apple Farm, their homestead and agritourism business in southern Maine, where they raise dairy goats, tend a large garden and small orchard, lead goat hikes, teach workshops, and operate a guest house. Their work with Community Plate has been featured on The TODAY Show, NBC Nightly News, NPR’s Weekend Edition Saturday, and in print in The National Civic Review, The Boston Globe Sunday Magazine, The Maine Sunday Telegram, and The Chronicle of Philanthropy. In April 2025, they were named one of 25 innovators tackling the loneliness epidemic by Reimagine’s Making Connections web series.