It was after her first visit to a farm where Celia stared at fields of food that would never make it to market due to aesthetic imperfections, that she realized there was a serious issue.

“How can so much nutritious, perfectly good food go to waste when there are people without access to healthy food? How can we support our farmers and help recover this food?”

These questions sparked a flame that unknowingly led her to become a passionate food rescue activist. After working in the corporate realm for over a decade, Celia left her hometown of Edmonton to study culinary arts at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York City. She became involved with “Salvage Supperclub”, an initiative based on a master’s thesis on food waste by a designer named Joshua Treuhaft. The duo launched their first collaboration in April 2014 in Brooklyn, curating thought provoking culinary events where guests experience the potential of food destined for the compost or landfill. Their work has been covered in Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes and National Geographic.

Celia was proud to be a member of the planning team that launched Canada’s first Feeding5000 in Vancouver in 2015, a global food waste event. She relocated to Thailand to teach the first Plant-Based Cooking course for Matthew Kenney Culinary and helped to incorporate zero waste approaches to the curriculum. She recently launched a Salvage Supperclub Tour in Japan with Chef Rieko Sakuramoto, working with local farmers and food businesses across the country. She is founder of From Root to Sky, where she offers root to stem cooking courses, curates sustainability events and consults on menu design. Celia is excited to share her insights on how we can discover the potential in our food.