05/12/2026
Mason County is sitting in the lowest quartile in Washington state for community health — and Mason Matters, the local 501(c)(3) that quieted down during COVID, has come back online with a plan to move that number twenty percent.
In this conversation, host Jeff Slakey sits down at the Economic Development Council Building in downtown Shelton with Julie Knott, the director of Mason Matters. They cover where the organization came from (the steering committee behind Blue Zones Activate Mason County), where it’s going (a refreshed health-equity agenda built around food, the built environment, and child care), and the partnerships making it work — Mason County Public Health, Mason Health, the EDC, the YMCA of Shelton, and both hospital districts.
You’ll hear how Mason Matters became the matching partner that helped the EDC land a major USDA grant — the largest awarded in Washington state and one of 43 nationally. You’ll hear about the Charlie Cart, a mobile teaching kitchen that just landed Mason County the distinction of being the first rural community in Washington to use one. And you’ll hear from a six-week pilot underway at South Side Elementary, where one student tasted homemade herb butter and asked, unprompted, if it had marjoram in it.
Also in this conversation: Maria Parra and the work happening at Hope Plaza, the Catalyst Garden re-imagining at the Master Gardeners’ space on Harvard, the Salmon Center master plan, the new Mountain View Café at Mason Health, the Shelton and Belfair Farmers Markets, a county-wide child-care assessment landing in June, and what the multi-billion-dollar Bremerton shipyard project means for the workforce — and the kids — of Mason County.
Plus: why Julie is biking from Shelton to Ketchikan, Alaska, this summer, and what Blue Zones founders bicycling across Asia have to do with Mason County life expectancy.
00:00 Cold open: Mason Matters is back
00:30 Welcome — at the EDC in downtown Shelton
01:30 Meet Julie Knott — from Jefferson County to rural-health work
02:00 What Blue Zones actually means for a rural county
03:30 How the steering committee became Mason Matters again
04:30 Lowest health quartile — and a 20% climb
05:30 It’s not just broccoli — the real pillars of health
06:30 Who’s on the board — Public Health, Mason Health, EDC, YMCA, hospital districts
07:30 How a USDA grant landed in Mason County
09:30 Reaching the people the system usually misses
11:00 The Charlie Cart — a mobile kitchen for kids
12:15 Marjoram, herb butter, and a kid who called an avocado a “dinosaur egg”
13:45 How will we know it worked?
14:50 Stewarding public dollars — nonprofit governance
16:00 Bike touring to Alaska: living what she preaches
16:55 Eat local: Shelton & Belfair Farmers Markets, Mountain View Café
18:10 Hope Plaza, Catalyst Garden, the Salmon Center
18:55 Child care: Mason County’s coming assessment
19:35 Bremerton shipyard ripple — why this all matters now
21:00 How to stay connected
📍 Mentioned in this episode:
• Mason Matters — masonmatters.org (verify URL before publishing)
• Economic Development Council of Mason County — choosemason.com (verify)
• Mason County Public Health
• Mason Health & Mountain View Café
• YMCA of Shelton
• Shelton Farmers Market & Belfair Farmers Market
• Hope Plaza at Faith Lutheran (1212 Connection Street)
• Master Gardeners’ Catalyst Garden
• Salmon Center
🎧 Subscribe to KMAS Radio & KMAS Morning News with Jeff Slakey wherever you get your podcasts.
