About us

ABOUT GUO

Growing Up Organic is a garden based educational program for children and youth, delivered by COG OSO in the City of Ottawa.

GUO partners with schools to support the establishment of school garden programs as the basis for experiential education at all grade levels. We provide educators with the essential tools to start these initiatives with confidence and ongoing support. Our garden-based workshops, delivered on-site at school gardens and made available online, provide teachers with building blocks and a model for integrating hands-on food literacy into their pedagogy.

GUO is focused on empowerment, 

through our strategic focus on education, we hope to foster a generation of children and youth with

greater food literacy, life-long healthy eating habits, increased food skills and an understanding of local and global environmental issues.

We are also part of the Ottawa School Food Network which consists of non-profit agencies and community initiatives working to increase Good Food within schools city-wide.

MISSION & VISION

ABOUT COG NATIONAL

Canadian Organic Growers envisions a regenerative and resilient food and farming system across Canada. COG provides education, advocacy and leadership to help build an agricultural system that empowers farmers and consumers, enhances human health, builds community and mitigates climate change while increasing Canadian food sovereignty.

ABOUT COG/COG OSO

Over the last 30 years COG Ottawa, and now COG Ottawa – St. Lawrence – Outaouais (or COG OSO for short), has been delivering programs and services for farmers, gardeners, educators, and people who care about healthy food and healthy environments. As a regional chapter of a registered national charity, COG OSO focuses its work on providing primarily educational services.

OUR TEAM

Nathalie Drummond

Growing Up Organic Program Manager

Nathalie joined COG, as the GUO program manager in February 2022. She has a keen interest in hands-on learning and food sovereignty. Nathalie started her career working with animals but soon came to realize that her true passion is the environment and our responsibility towards it. With a background in environmental studies and biology she ran her own small scale CSA farm, C’est La Vie Farm in Ottawa. After having 2 children of her own she has become more aware of the disconnect that can sometimes happen between children and our food system. Nathalie is excited to be a part of the Growing Up Organic team, contributing to helping our next generation getting their hands dirty and enjoying it too, all the while learning more about human and planet health along the way!

Marie Josee Laviolette

GROWING UP ORGANIC WORKSHOP FACILITATOR

Marie-Josée is first off a great enthusiast of delicious tasting local foods. Throughout her years as an amateur food and herb grower, she has been most interested in vermicomposting and its black gold (worm poop!); not surprisingly, she believes in the power of brewing compost tea for the garden! Marie-Josée has worked on organic farms in the USA, Canada and in Taiwan. Recently, she has been very inspired by the rad diversity of grass-root projects in the Ottawa region! She is your benevolent workshop facilitator for Spring 2022.

Favourite Tree: Sugar Maple
Favourite Vegetable: Celery Root
Favourite Wild Flower: Black-Eyed Susan
Favourite Bird: Chickadee
Favourite fruit: Dried Apricot
Favourite mushroom: Portabello

Rachel Murphy

GROWING UP ORGANIC VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR

Rachel is currently serving as the Volunteer Director of Growing Up Organic while pursuing her Bachelor of Education at Trent University. She is passionate about urban gardening and hopes to integrate environmental experiential learning in her future classrooms. Rachel strongly believes in food justice and that access to nutritious local food is something that all children should have. Rachel shares Growing Up Organic’s commitment to empowering learners to care for the earth and local food systems through gardening and stewardship. In her free time, you might find Rachel exploring a forest, swimming and hiking in nearby nature.

Favourite Tree: Buttonwood
Favourite Vegetable: Delicata Squash
Favourite Wild Flower: Trout Lily
Favourite Bird: Blue Heron
Favourite fruit: Redhaven Peach
Favourite mushroom: Chanterelles

Brett Weddle

GROWING UP WORKSHOP Facilitator

Brett is an organic farmer and nature educator. He is passionate about sharing his love of nature through the lens of food and agriculture, and toward that goal founded Cadence Ecological Farm at Just Food Community Farm. Cadence employs older teens and young adults through the Youth Skills Program, partnering with Just Food and the Youth Services Bureau. Also on site, he is a mentor with Earth Path Nature School. He is excited to wear another hat as a facilitator with GUO!

Favourite Tree: Anything climable
Favourite Vegetable: Garlic
Favourite Wild Flower: Red clover
Favourite Bird: Crow Heron
Favourite fruit: Mango
Favourite mushroom: Mycorrhizal fungi

Jennifer Neate

GROWING UP WORKSHOP Facilitator

Jennifer is a dynamic, experiential educator and Ontario certified teacher with a passion for restoring relationships between human and other-than-human beings.  As the founder of Spirit Walkers, she has been providing nature-connection programs for children and youth for more than ten years.  She has also worked as an outdoor education instructor and occasional teacher for the Ottawa Carleton District School Board, and has taught in South Africa and Sierra Leone both in the classroom and outdoors.  Jennifer’s love of plants began in her grandfather’s vegetable garden as a child.  She is an enthusiastic gardener and enjoys making her own herbal tinctures, healing salves and fermented vegetables.

 

With a Bachelor’s degree in Education specializing in Outdoor and Experiential Education and an Honours Degree in Science with a major in Ecology, Jennifer is excited to be a part of the GUO team to empower children and youth with the skills and knowledge to help grow sustainable local food systems.

Favourite Tree: White pine
Favourite Vegetable: Cauliflower
Favourite Wild Flower: Dutchman’s Breeches
Favourite Bird: Common Loon
Favourite fruit: Empire Apple
Favourite mushroom: Chanterelle

Jessie Zimmerling

GROWING UP WORKSHOP Facilitator

Jessie is a horticulturalist with a great love for purple vegetables! She began gardening with her grandparents, learning historical methods of growing flowers and vegetables, and studied horticulture at Algonquin College. Always full of creativity, she enjoys garden design, sewing, and fostering cats in her free time.

Favourite Tree: Apple tree
Favourite Vegetable: purple sugar snap peas
Favourite Wild Flower: mallow
Favourite Bird: chickadee
Favourite fruit: blueberries
Favourite mushroom: Inky Cap

Bethany Hamilton

GROWING UP WORKSHOP Facilitator

Bethany is really passionate about combining her love of farming with her background of teaching in a way that is accessible and understandable to those around her. She runs a mini farm with two cats, two goats, two pigs, 30 chickens, a 2,400 square foot vegetable and herb garden, and an ever-developing food forest. She’s constantly trying to learn from the Land, from those who have more experience, and from the families who drop by to meet her animals or play in the garden. She really wants to share her knowledge and experience with folks of all ages in her community in order to help them make better food choices, understand where their food comes from, and learn to grow and raise their own food where they can. When she’s not farming, she’s usually fixing or improving fences, structures or systems on the farm, or doing renovations on her 19th century farmhouse. 

 

In her spare time, she loves cuddling with her dogs, reading a good book, birdwatching, singing, or spending time with her own family or one of her eight siblings.

FAVOURITE TREE: Maple

FAVOURITE VEGETABLE: Tomato

FAVOURITE WILD FLOWER: Phlox

FAVOURITE BIRD: Any kind of Hawk

FAVOURITE FRUIT: A handpicked, warm-from-the-sun Ontario strawberry in June. 

FAVOURITE MUSHROOM: The ones that sprout spontaneously in my grass!

Anya Sylenko

GROWING UP WORKSHOP Facilitator

Anya is a herbalist, gardener and naturalist from Ukraine. They are passionate about land-based experiential education, whether it is in the vegetable garden or following a trail of fox tracks. Anya holds a Bachelor’s in Environment and Health studies, a Family Herbalist diploma from the Vermont Center of Integrative Herbalism, and has studied wilderness skills at Coyote Programs. With an 8-year background in community urban agriculture with youth and adults of all ages, Anya is delighted to be joining GUO to continue the work of empowering youth to grow their own food.

FAVOURITE TREE: paper birch

FAVOURITE VEGETABLE: kale

FAVOURITE WILD FLOWER: yarrow

FAVOURITE BIRD: junco

FAVOURITE FRUIT: raspberry

FAVOURITE MUSHROOM: fly agaric

Our advisory board

Our advisory board brings together a group of teacher leaders and community workers from the Ottawa area who care deeply about food literacy and want to ensure a place for this alternative type of teaching/learning for future generations.

Alissa Campbell

photo of Chloe Laberge - advisor to Growing Up Organic

Chloé Laberge

David Farlay

Dominique Patnaik

Michelle Richardson

Rachel Murphy

Stephen Skoutajan