Join Eva Durance and Jennifer Vincent for an introduction to the Penticton Urban Agriculture Association (PUAA). The central objectives of PUAA, formed in 2010, are to educate people in how to grow some of their own food, assist those in need to have access to more locally produced, high-quality food, and promote support for local farmers. To that end, we have set up the Centre for Urban Agriculture (C.URB) on leased property in Penticton. Our presentation will discuss the need and possibilities for greater food security in our area, what we have accomplished so far, programs we are working on currently for 2013 and beyond, and how others can help us achieve our objectives.

About Eva and Jennifer:

Eva Durance, President of PUAA, grew up in a Southwestern Ontario farming family and community, moving to BC/the Okanagan in 1989.  She taught English Language and Literature at Carleton University, Ottawa, and worked in a variety of information fields, including agricultural research, in Ontario and here.  Eva also has a Diploma in Landscape Design and develops her designs using xeriscape methods.  Her combined naturalist and gardening interests led her to write Cultivating the Wild: gardening with native plants of BC’s Southern Interior and Eastern Washington. She has gardened all her life and co-founded PUAA with Julius Bloomfield  largely because of what she (and he) saw as the need and capacity for much greater and more broadly based food production in the Okanagan.

Jennifer Vincent is a Director-at-Large for PUAA. Growing up on a small hobby farm in the Fraser Valley fueled a passion for encouraging food gardening and self-sufficiency in others.  Academically, Jennifer has a background in Horticulture and an Arts degree. She lived in Australia for over a decade, returning to Canada in 2009 and now calls Penticton home. An entrepreneur to the core, she is the founder of Little Green Book, which contracts to FarmFolk CityFolk for coordinating events that celebrate local food abundance such as Feast of Fields and Meet Your Maker, she is also co-founder of the Farm Bag Fundraiser^TM, an initiative that connects schools with locally–grown produce for fundraising campaigns, and is also the co-founder of Cowork Penticton, a shared professional workspace in downtown Penticton. Jennifer also sits on the Board of the Downtown Penticton Association.

For more information and to contact PUAA:

Website – www.puaa.wordpress.com;

Facebook – www.facebook.com/PentictonUrbanAgriculture