Introducing Our New Intern: Andria Coulbourn!

Hi everyone! My name is Andria and I am a new student intern working with Growing Chefs for the Fall! I am beyond excited to be working with Growing Chefs, especially as we navigate our new online world and find new ways to keep creating community. Food is a huge part of my life, and I am very passionate about food literacy and creating sustainable food systems. 

Agriculture has always been a large part of my life! My grandparents live in Saskatchewan where they run multiple commercial greenhouses, producing fresh veggies to sell at farmers markets and through local distributors. Since I was young I’ve always spent time in my summers working in the greenhouses. I loved picking tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers but my favourite time was working at the markets. Since I was little I was so amazed by the wonderful community created between the vendors and purchasers at the market. Local agriculture brought so many people together! 

Since spending many summers picking and growing veggies at the greenhouses my interest in food led me to attend UBC to study in the faculty of Land and Food Systems. Land and Food Systems allows me to study interdisciplinary programs to learn all about my focus on international development and sustainable food systems. Through Land and Food Systems I also learned about international agriculture and had the opportunity to travel to Indonesia to take courses at an agricultural university south of Jakarta.

This amazing experience even allowed me to tour various agricultural systems such as tea fields and cassava fields. More locally, my courses have also taught me all about food literacy, which further encouraged me to pursue education in my future and hopefully teach in elementary schools. I am currently in my fourth year at UBC and I am really looking forward to bringing the knowledge I learn from Growing Chefs and what I’ve learned in the classroom together to help create food literacy and more sustainable food systems!

In my spare time, I love going on walks, watching the sunset at the beach and of course curling up to watch a movie with lots of snacks!

Welcome, Darian!

Hello! I’m Darian Leung, and I’m lucky to be joining Growing Chefs during these unprecedented times as a student intern. Food is inseparable to my life, as it is one of my primary sources of joy, fulfilment, and connection to others. By utilizing food as a catalyst to my personal growth, this interconnected building block makes me excited to be working with Growing Chefs, as I can educate and reconnect communities through food literacy and healthy eating initiatives.

Frankly, I am not shy about cooking and the culinary scene. Before deciding to study Human Resource Management at York University, I wanted to be a chef and food educator. With ties to the culinary arts, I never gave up my passion and interest in cooking. I even worked at a seafood restaurant in the West End of Vancouver as a prep cook for two months to gain a new perspective as a chef, and to keep my food skills and knowledge fresh. Although adventurous with my cooking, I remain grounded in experimenting with Asian cuisine due to comfort and familiarity. I like to relay back to my culture as the main focus and inspiration to my food creations. As long as I can make good food and share it with others, food origins are not strict and vital to me, since my ultimate goal is to unite people with my food! I believe food is a universal language meant to create new relationships and memories, which I strive to foster within my projects when thinking about food accessibility issues in a communal context. 

My internship with Growing Chefs is through the work placement component of the Roots & Shoots Program at the Environmental Youth Alliance this summer. Through the initial land-based part of this internship, I learned and embraced a more inclusive and adaptive mentality as I worked and collaborated with peers and community partners in the East Vancouver area. I became immersed in environmental knowledge and cultural teachings such as harvesting, processing, landscaping, and other horticultural mediums of Indigenous Peoples. This uplifting work experience at EYA allowed me to see a bigger picture outside of colonialistic beliefs. If my nerves die down, I would be thrilled to design an interactive lesson plan and workshop encompassing my Asian background or Indigenous based plant practices learnt from EYA to encourage new food wisdom and diversity in the Growing Chefs community. 

Besides eating and cooking new food, you can find me sheltered away behind the computer screens watching food review vlogs on Youtube, and spending time with my sister’s cats, Luna and Nova.