Volunteer Feature: Paula Marinescu

We know that one of the main reasons people love to visit the UBC Farm Saturday Farmers’ Market is the community: chatting to vendors, seeing friends, spending time with family, and meeting new people. One person our marketgoers are sure to have seen is Paula Marinescu.

This is Paula’s fifth season volunteering at the UBC Farm stall and we couldn’t imagine our market without. She brings an infectious smile and a can-do attitude each Saturday that makes working the market downright fun. Find her talking up cucumbers or stocking veggies during the afternoon market!

Paula, on the left, with Sara, a longtime UBC Farm volunteer who recruited Paula for our markets

I would love to hear how you first heard about the Farm and what interested you in coming out?

We moved into the UBC neighborhood back in May 2007, and through some friends we heard about the Farm. We started coming regularly to the Farm and then one Saturday morning while I was shopping another volunteer, Sara, recruited me. She said, “Well, I see that you really love what we have here at the Farm and you come here every Saturday, so would you come would you like to volunteer?” And I thought, “Whoa, that’s a great opportunity to actually spend even more time at the Farm, and with the amazing produce that’s here.” I didn’t actually know about the volunteer program. She was the first one to mention it to me. So that’s actually how I found out about the volunteering aspect of the Farm. I was shopping here for a long time, but back then I wasn’t aware of the volunteer program.

Is there anything you would say to people who are interested in volunteering at the Farm or interested in shopping at the Farm? What makes it special to you?

I just love the fresh produce. It’s seeing real food that actually touched the ground because I see so much produce in other markets that didn’t even touch the soil. Here I know everything is organic, grown in the land and it has the most nutrition value that you can possibly get. So I really love the quality. And it’s so different from what I do in terms of work. I’m with computers in my professional work so here being with food and talking to people it’s a big change for me. It’s a really nice balance.

This is your fifth season helping at the market, what’s the best or biggest change you’ve noticed over the years?

I really like how the quality is maintained or even improved throughout the years. They introduced more varieties since I started here. Like for example this year was the first year I’ve seen eggplants. Plus the fact that they got the certification of organic, because they were growing organic before when I started but it wasn’t certified. A lot of people would ask “Is this certified organic food?” and I would have to tell them “Yes, it is organic but it’s not certified.” But since last year when the farm got the certification I could actually proudly say “What you buy here at the UBC Farm is certified organic.” And having the chicken over the winter [last year], that was great! I like being able to buy eggs all through the wintertime too.

So what is it that keeps you coming back to the Farm throughout the years?

Definitely, it’s the quality of food and the people. I love the people working here. They are always cheerful and kind and thoughtful.

You can find Paula at the UBC Farm stand at our Saturday Farmers’ Market this Saturday for our final regular season market of 2018. Learn more about other market vendors and topics on our Saturday Farmers’ Market blog! These weekly market blog posts are linked from our newsletter when they are posted; to get regular updates, make sure to join our newsletter here.