By increasing biodiversity, abundance and health in the Urban Orchard and supporting the development of healthy food environments.
By providing resources and supports to program participants, volunteers and staff to help them become leaders in food systems change.
This is more than just food. By providing opportunities for people to learn and interact with the local food system, we are changing the way the community lives, thinks, and eats in Greater Victoria. When you collect dirt under your fingernails gardening, or feel sunshine warm your shoulders in an orchard, or bite into a fresh picked fruit and let the juice drip down your chin, you are grounded in a shift that strengthens our connections with each other and the natural world.
Alex (she/her) is the owner and primary farmer at Bird & Bean Farm, while also taking on her role here at LifeCycles as the General Manager. She has settler heritage, her family origin is mainly from Scotland and Ireland, and grew up on unceded Algonquin Anishinaabeg traditional territory, in Ottawa. Alex identifies as queer and is lucky enough to share the property she farms on with other awesome members of the queer community. Alex’s love of the outdoors began at a young age. She was a camp kid who then became a canoe tripping guide in the summers. After high school, she spent a few years travelling around the world by volunteering as a WWOOFer (world wide opportunities on organic farms) and her love of the natural world began to include growing. At the same time, however, Alex grew more and more concerned about our changing climate and wanted to affect change more directly through law and policy. She decided to go back to school to pursue first an undergrad degree in Sustainability and Sociology, and then a law degree focusing on environmental and Indigenous law. After law school, however, she quickly discovered that colonial law felt far too reactive in a time when proactivity is so needed, and she found herself being more and more drawn to Indigenous law revitalization. She began searching for jobs outside of colonial law and feels incredibly grateful to have been able to work for the Indigenous Law Research Unit, affiliated with UVic, for over 2 years. However, the longer she worked fulltime in an office, the more she dreamed to be able to be outside and grow again. Thus, her search for opportunities in the agricultural field began. Even though Alex deeply has loved farming these past years, she missed engaging her brain in big-picture discussions, which is a big part of why she is so excited to be working with the LifeCycles Project! This year she looks forward to being a contributing member on her farm as well as working at LifeCycles to bring her love of food and her hate for food waste together!"
River (they/them) is passionate about increasing the resilience of urban and suburban landscapes through utilising plants native to these territories, increasing food security through integrating edible perennials and fruit trees into the landscape, and helping to increase connections to land through making gardening more possible and accessible. Currently they do this work though their landscaping business Nightingale Gardens, and are very excited to be expanding this work as they take on the role of Welland Orchard Coordinator.
Their background is in agriculture, with five seasons spent working on small-scale organic farms, as well as a Landscape Horticulture Certificate (Red Seal levels 1 and 2) from the Pacific Horticulture College. They have also spent several years facilitating group learning and activities, for both kids and adults, in a variety of environments.
Their family is primarily from Ireland, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine and England. They were raised on kʷikʷəƛ̓əm territories (Coquitlam BC) and have been living on W̱SÁNEĆ and lək̓ʷəŋən territories for the past 10 years. Their work is grounded in intersectional queer feminism, disability justice, and decolonization. They are queer, trans, and neurodivergent, and have a lifelong love of fruit trees.
Jess joined LifeCycles’ board of directors in 2018. He learned about LifeCycles while picking apples in the community and was quickly drawn to this valuable work. Jess started his career with the BC Public Service in 2001 and has held multiple roles in the past 20 years in the justice and public safety sector. His education includes a Bachelor of Social Work and Masters of Business Administration. Jess looks forward to continuing involvement with LifeCycles’ board and advancing the organization’s important mandate in the community.
Orvis Starkweather joined the LifeCycles board after volunteering as a Harvest Leader with the Fruit Tree Project. Orvis has been a grateful guest on the territories of the Esquimalt, Songhees and WSÁNEĆ peoples for the last 4 years. Orvis is descended from Irish, English, Scottish and German people that settled around the Great Lakes. Orvis is committed to food sustainability as a way of ensuring healthy communities and environment. Orvis comes to the board with a background in queer and trans organizing, including successfully advocating for the creation of gender neutral bathrooms, community building, and resource development. Orvis works as the People and Equity Analytics Advisor with the Human Resources Department at UVic. Orvis likes to sew, preserve food, cycle, visit art galleries, and do jigsaw puzzles.
Sandra (she/her) grew up on a farm along the North Saskatchewan River (Cree territory) and raised her three children on the West coast, continuing her passion for living in relationship with the land. She has been actively involved in community food projects over the years, with an interest in experiential learning and human-plant relationships. Professional expertise includes teaching academic English at Camosun College, engaging in scholarly research as a doctoral candidate at the California Institute of Integral Studies, and supporting her daughter’s herbal apothecary, Green Muse Herbs and Flowers.
Grown from seeds first planted in 1994.
On an international youth exchange program in Santiago, Chile, our founding members learned about the links between globalization, the corporatization of food systems, environmental degradation, and food security. The program in Chile worked with local organizations to develop projects that would enhance the quality of life within urban communities. Our founders wondered how they could do the same thing at home, and from there the idea for the LifeCycles Project grew.
Our first project was the development of community gardens, tended by youth, whose harvests supplied local soup kitchens. Since then, our programs have grown to include a number of interrelated initiatives that address urban sustainability and food security by offering practical, accessible and hopeful solutions.
While “Think Globally, Act Locally” seems simplistic, it is still the best model for social and environmental action. This is one of our founding principles and it is why we have endured as one of Victoria’s best-loved community organizations for over 25 years. Local action, rooted within the community, is the most effective way to create change.