Stephanie Jacobs - Co-Chair

Stephanie Jacobs comes to the UFT with a diverse background in food systems non-profit governance, management, food growing, education and business. Stephanie is currently pursuing graduate studies through KPU’s Sustainable Food Systems and Security program, is an avid home gardener, and a vocal advocate for climate action, agroecology and small-scale regional farming.

Arielle (Ash) Houghton - Co-Chair

Arielle Houghton (she/her) is a graduate of Earth Activist Training’s Permaculture Design Certificate and Satinflower Nursery/Pollinator Partnership’s Meadow Maker’s Program. With a background in environmental advocacy, community organizing, and events coordinating, Arielle strives to build community around healthy and abundant natural ecosystems.

Jamie Jacobs - Administrator

Jamie (she/her) has been the administrative assistant for the UFT since January 2022. Jamie is a graduate of UVic with a BSc in Geography and Environmental Studies. She is passionate about food security and believes that it is essential for all people to have access to food knowledge from a young age - both in growing and cooking their own food. In fact, Jamie believes kids are pretty rad and enjoys working with a kindergarten class at a local forest school! She loves that she gets to be a part of the wonderful sharing of knowledge that occurs each month in UFT meetings.

Katie Underwood

Peas n’ Carrots Farm

Katie (former UFT co-chair) owns and operates Peas n’ Carrots Farm in Saanich and at her home in Victoria. She is an active member of Haliburton’s Board of Directors, involved with Victoria’s Urban Food Table, the Good Food Leadership Group and enjoys volunteering on projects that promote urban growing, farmer’s access to farmland and restoration. Her favourite food is pizza and she has been a UFT member since 2017.

Ashley Chun

Fairfield Gonzales Community Assocation

Ashley (She/Her) has been a part of the UFT since January 2022. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Geography & Environmental Studies. Jumping into community development work after graduating, Ashley's been serving community needs through food security programs, advocacy, and other community engagement events. She is passionate about serving the community and offering equitable access to healthy & local food, as food is an essential human right!

Kayla Siefried

Compost Education Centre

Kayla Siefried (she/her) is a settler in Lekwungen Territory and grew up in Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. Kayla is the steward of the Compost Education Centre demonstration gardens and the curator and main educator of the Adult Education Program. She can be found growing seedlings for plant sales, working with volunteers to keep gardens healthy, flipping hot compost, arranging expert instructors to teach workshops, or out in the community teaching about soil health, organic gardening, and Do-It-Yourself tasks that increase our climate resilience.

Kayla holds a Bachelor of Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo, and she continued on with practical hands-on permaculture training, gardening and farming internships in various places on Turtle Island and beyond.

Kayla sees the act of growing food and stewarding the soil as one that can heal on many levels. A keen sustainability activist, Kayla finds meaning in advocating for and living an environmentally sustainable life that involves bicycles, healthy food systems, and a good amount of outdoor dancing!

Brooke Williams 

Growing Young Farmers Society

Brooke’s work in urban agriculture and food security started in Toronto at the Ryerson Rooftop Farm. This opportunity inspired her to pursue a career in farming and food programming. 

After moving to Victoria BC in 2019, she now co-owns a no-till 1/8th acre farm in the Strawberry Vale, and is the Executive Director for Growing Young Farmers Society (GYFS). GYFS teaches, empowers, and encourages kids to grow food in schools, making food growing a part of their weekly curriculum every fall and spring. GYFS builds and maintains school gardens and hires knowledgeable farmers and gardeners to teach students in these spaces. They also run summer camps for youth aged 5-10yrs.

Alex Kuhn

Alex joined the Urban Food Table at the beginning of 2019 after learning about the UFT at a City of Victoria Youth Council meeting. She is passionate about working to help preserve and protect our planet for future generations and is eager to learn more about how to do so under the lens of food security and sustainability. She is a currently involved with Pollinator Partnership Canada’s Pollinator Leadership Team and The Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society’s Welcome Gardens Project. She has previously worked as a Harvest Support Coordinator for LifeCycles Project Society and as an Outreach Coordinator for the Youth Food Network.

Ben Clark

Ben is a former UFT co-chair, and continues to provide guidance to support the UFT. He has worked in the area of sustainability and climate change for 15 years, supporting initiatives in government, community organizations, and the private sector. Some recent highlights include helping to install planter boxes at the Urban Learning Garden, developing a research framework to measure the impact of adventure tourism, and hosting workshops around BC focused on jobs in a low-carbon economy.

Having worked locally with other community and food-related organizations, he joined the Urban Food Table in 2015 and became a co-chair in 2018. Ben has a MA in Environment and Management from Royal Roads University, where his research focused on the role of restaurants in supporting the local food economy on Southern Vancouver Island.

He really enjoys puttering around a large vessel, usually with tomato sauce or beer cooking inside, and also exploring Vancouver Island and the Salish Sea with a bike and a pair of hiking boots.

Sue Ann Gentry

James Bay New Horizons Society

I have been apart of the James Bay New Horizons Pollinator Garden since its inception in 2015. It has been a pleasure to be apart of a group of dedicated and persistent volunteers. We have managed to manifest and create a beautiful community space that has enhanced our community in so many ways. I invite everyone to stop by and see our small but vital Pollinator Garden.

Heather Vandenengel

South Island FarmHub/Victoria Community Food Hub Society

Heather is the Sales & Marketing Coordinator for the South Island FarmHub and Kitchen Connect, where she loves writing about vegetables and promoting great local farms. She is a former farmer and journalist, and enjoys baking, thrifting, and sewing.

Brianna Stewart

FED Urban Agriculture Society & Synergy Foundation

As the FED Program Manager, Brianna brings community-focused urban agriculture projects to life while advocating for a sustainable food economy on Vancouver Island. Brianna holds a BSc in Food & Environment from UBC’s Faculty of Land and Food Systems and spent years in the sustainable restaurant scene, championing local food and the slow food movement in a variety of roles. Her role with FED bridges the gap between experience and a passion for agriculture and food sustainability.

Patti Parkhouse

Victoria West Community Assocation

Lisa Small

Yates street community garden

Lisa has always possessed a deep love for having her hands in the soil and has spent over a decade working on and managing small-scale farms in coastal BC. She was the Programs Coordinator for Capital Region Food and Agriculture Initiatives Roundtable (CRFAIR), where she developed and coordinated Growing Together, a collaborative initiative creating tools and resources to help people in growing food. Currently, she is the Coordinator of the Yates Street Community Garden on lək̓ʷəŋən Territory, in downtown Victoria, where she is passionate about educating and supporting others in growing food. She is an avid learner, bringing her studies in herbal medicine and in Restoration of Natural Systems (University of Victoria) to her teaching roles. She is committed to being in service to community and developing relationships through growing and sharing food and medicines!