Our People

Carla Thomson

Founder

Carla is a teacher/gardener/cook who has worked in the Ōtepoti food education space for many years. Currently, she works alongside whānau learning and teaching how to grow our own kai in our own backyards. She loves the way Give to Grow Ōtepoti makes it easier for people to do this.

Jan Aitken

Jan has worked with people all her life, as a nurse and a life coach.
She grew up around vege gardeners and still loves planting, growing and eating fresh veges. Jan believes gardening benefits body, mind and soul. She loves that Give to Grow Ōtepoti can help people to share these benefits.

Jess Squire

Operations Coordinator and Liaison

Jess studies Environmental Management and Marketing at the University of Otago. She is super passionate about sustainability, and was inspired to join Give to Grow to contribute to local food production and help more people across Ōtepoti to grow their own produce.

Jess first began providing business support to Give to Grow in 2023 through her work with campus-based Ignite Consultants. She is our superstar go-to-person for just about everything, but particularly enjoys connecting with amazing local people and communities in her Liaison role, and getting stuck into creative work (like helping to design this website!) wherever possible.

Kate Vercoe

Board Member

Kate has a passion for community development, enabled through growing food collectively and individually. She was the General Manager at the Otago Farmers Market for 7.5 years and more recently has been involved with community development centred around food security. 

Kate is a very keen gardener and is excited to be  working in a governance role that enables community members to grow food and build stronger, sustainable communities.

Sue Graham

Champion

Sue is a gardener, an educator, a connector and an encourager and a champion of entrepreneurial ideas. Sue sees Give to Grow as a great entrepreneurial idea and a worthy social initiative committed to improving well-being, food resilience and supporting sharing. Redistributing surplus gardening tools and gifting them to others so they can create their own gardens makes good sense to Sue and she takes every chance she gets to champion our cause.

Nā to rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and with my food basket, the people will thrive.