Meet Our New Students and Volunteers
Posted: November 12, 2014
Categories: News from Sustain Ontario / Volunteer. Job and Writing Opportunities
Once again, we are fortunate to have a group of bright, dedicated individuals to work and learn alongside Sustain’s staff to support the alliance’s work. From analyzing surveys, conducting research, organizing resources, reaching out to new and established contacts, designing user-friendly materials, and celebrating changemakers’ work on Sustain’s blogs, we are thankful for these students and volunteers who are sharing their passion and energy to help us tell the story of healthy food and farming in Ontario.
Meet The Team
Anelyse Weiler is a PhD student in sociology at the University of Toronto focusing on farm labour, migration and food sovereignty. She is working with Sustain Ontario on a project bringing together diverse stakeholders to advance health equity and dignified livelihoods for farm workers in Ontario.
Alena Cawthorne is a first year Masters student in Environmental Studies at York University in the Planning Program. Interested in learning more about food policy in Ontario, Alena is helping the Municipal/Regional Food Policy Working group’s local food procurement project by supporting resource collection and organization for the network.
Anne Legate-Wolfe is a Master of Arts student at the University of Toronto studying Geography, with a background in International Development and Nutritional Sciences. Her thesis is focused on how Guatemalans affected by expanding agribusinesses achieve food security and adequate nutrition when faced with changing land practices. She’s excited to be working with Sustain Ontario to help Ontarians achieve adequate sustainable, healthy, and local food both now and into the future, focusing on the Buy Local and Food Literacy initiatives.
Ashley Quan is currently at George Brown in the Sports & Event Marketing program. She’s a returning volunteer, having worked with Sustain, Local Food Plus and Evergreen Brickworks over the past few years. With a background in communications and design. she’s helping to keep Sustain’s many resources and websites look and sound as good as the food we’re helping to grow.
Brittany Burrows comes to Sustain Ontario with a background in engineering, a current career as an educator and a passion for food with the desire to positively impact our food systems. She is currently volunteering with the Ontario Edible Education Network to build its resource database.
Emily Mann has recently returned to Ontario, now studying at the University of Waterloo, after having completed an undergrad degree in New Brunswick, two farming apprenticeships in Ontario and BC and a year teaching abroad. She is most interested in food sovereignty, seeds, education and accessibility to resilient markets. At Sustain, she’s been doing communications work and assisted with the Vote ON Food and Farming campaign.
Gurkirat Randhawa recently graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Food, Nutrition, and Health. She is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree at the University of Toronto in Public Health with a Health Promotion specialization. She is very passionate about food security and has done a lot of work in the field and is now excited to be working at the policy level. She will be helping with food literacy and food skills work at Sustain Ontario.
Vanessa Simpson is a second year Master’s student at Ryerson University in the Department of Planning and Urban Design. She has a keen interest in food policy and community gardens. Over the next few months, she will be doing extensive research on these topics while she writes her final research paper. She is excited to be working with Sustain Ontario and the Community Garden Network throughout this research.