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Judie Varga-Toth

​​Judi has been involved with non-profit organizations for over twenty-five years. She is currently the Co-Chair of the Deep Roots Food Hub.
 Judi owned and operated her own café, cooking school, and catering company called Credible Edibles, which served ‘nutritious, delicious, and environmentally conscious’ food.
Her goal for the Deep Roots Food Hub is to make it the place to go in West Carleton for everything and anything to do with good food like buying, learning about, knowing about, cooking, preparing, and growing good food. Essentially, her goal is to turn it into the hub for good food in West Carleton.

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Phil Reilly

​Phil is a keen gardener and former perennial plant nursery owner/operator. He never started out with an intent to run a nursery or to be a sought-after gardening educator … but as he puts it “Life happens!”

Phil is a Carleton University Biology graduate (1968) with majors in plant physiology, biochemistry, and ecology.
Over the years he has participated in community groups concerned with human impacts on the environment. 
In 1991 The Ottawa Field Naturalists Club named Phil ““Conservationist of the Year” for his years’ of volunteer efforts in preserving wetlands in the Ottawa area. He was instrumental in wetland preservation campaign programmes by groups such as the Wetlands Preservation Group of West Carleton (focused on the Constance Creek Wetlands), the Leitrim Wetlands Group, the Ottawa Field Naturalists’ Club’s Conservation Committee, and Ecovision (a group campaigning for ecological integrity in land use planning in Ottawa-Carleton).

Starting in the early 1990’s, Phil & Carole initiated Reilly’s Country Gardens—a Kinburn-area ornamental plant nursery. Phil initially intended to focus on producing and selling native plants suited to the Ottawa region. But the then (30 years ago) lack of demand for native plants caused a need to refocus on unique ornamentals not commonly available in local nurseries and garden centres.  To showcase the available plants able to be grown, in heavy clay soils, 32 display beds were designed and built.

Since closing their nursery in 2009, to enjoy retirement, Phil has maintained his involvements in gardening (now focusing on vegetable and fruit varieties) and food production and storage, and energy security. Since 2010 he has installed a 10 kw. solar panel array, upgraded household windows to energy-conserving triple-paned units, installed an air-to-air heat pump for heating and cooling, and purchased two electric vehicles to utilize site-captured solar energy. 

Phil joined Deep Roots Food Hub’s Board of Directors in the spring of 2019 and has since been helping with the final stages of the Root Cellar construction project.

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Dr. Barry Bruce

Dr. Bruce received his MD from UWO, and established a family practice (and a family) with Dr. Carol Bruce in Carp Ontario in 1973. He was Chief of Staff ,Queensway-Carleton Hospital, Lead Physician West Carleton FHT, (awarded Family Practice of the Year, 2010), received the Ontario “Physicians Care Award”,   carried the Olympic Torch  for the CMA,   received  “Family Physician of the Year”  for the Champlain Region and the Order of Ottawa, both in 2013.
Professionally, he does primary care clinical work, planning, and research, leads a local Primary Care Network, works on various LHIN and MOHLTC committees and was a clinical running instructor.  He leads the “Physical Activity and Therapeutic Exercise” team for the West Carleton Family Health Team, and is the clinical lead for a Community paramedic program embedded in the WCFHT.
As co-chair of the "Rural Healthy Living Coalition" (RHLC), nutrition, food equity and food insecurity were important agenda topics. This lead to the development of a working group of local food experts and advocates, and eventually spawned the development of the Deep Roots Food Hub.  

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