Maria Edilma Pulido – Design By Yourself
Maria is the owner of Design By Yourself, an innovative flower business in Edmonton. Maria, originally trained as an interior designer and ran a successful flower shop in Columbia, before immigrating to Canada with her family.
In 2019, Maria opened Design By Yourself. Currently in the early stages, her hopes are to open an ecommerce and storefront shop in the near future. Maria is grateful to Canada and the community she lives in for welcoming her and helping her achieve her dreams. She hopes she can contribute to positive impacts for others.
Maria’s flower creations were included in each Flavours of Somalia meal box.
Guuto Mothers Co-operative
Guuto Mothers Cooperative is an organization committed to supporting newcomer families. They engage mothers and women in a familiar and friendly work environment including tailoring, arts, cooking, and henna. These women entrepreneurs operate a small café and catering business located at 10412 118 Ave. They can be contacted at guutocoops@gmail.com.
Guuto Mothers Co-operative created a special Somalin Tea Blend which was included in the Holiday Cultural Boxes.
LocalCart is owned by Chandrima Gupta and her siblings, with support from their parents. This young group of entrepreneurs provide same day shopping and delivery services with a specialized knowledge of ethnic groceries.
LocalCart decided to partner with EdmontonEats as they know first-hand what it is like to be an immigrant in Canada and wanted to support the EdmontonEats cultural host families. LocalCart delivered all the boxes for the Taste of Somalia and generously provided a coupon to participants for one free delivery. They also were part of the delivery team for the Holiday Cultural Box Event.
Miguel Angel Jimenez Mayorquin-BILD Photography
Miguel became connected with EdmontonEats after winning a photography contest in Bannerman community. Miguel has become the official photographer of EdmontonEats. He has created a distinct image for us through his photography.
Miguel is an experienced photographer from Columbia. Some of his photos were made into beautiful cards that were included in the EdmontonEats Holiday Cultural Box Event. Along with providing photography, he and his family have become very connected to our local community and contribute their time to many events.
Below is a picture from his “Edmonton Series”.
Najm Al-Tameeni – Maram Honey & Vinegar
Najm grew up in Al Foa, located in south Iraq. Najm moved to Syria as a refugee in 2007 where he worked in the field of honey and bee products. Syrians believe that honey is useful in treating many diseases and Najm learned the benefits of using vinegar with honey. Najm moved to Edmonton in 2015, where he pursued his dream of developing and selling a honey vinegar product. He partnered with a beekeeper who has been making organic honey for over 30 years. This past year he received his license from Alberta Health and has started to produce Maram Vinegar which is named after his daughter.
Najm found the peaceful community he was looking for in Edmonton. Najm is proud to provide a great life for his wife and children. Najm’s honey vinegar is a symbol to his children and to others to follow your passions and give back to the community.
Each Cultural Celebration Box included a bottle of Maram honey vinegar.
Aga is a chartered herbalist and founder of Herbologie, a Canadian herb and spice company. It focuses on importing single-origin, and high quality spices directly from artisan farms around the world.
Herbologie added a jar of Black Nigella Seed to EdmontonEats Celebration Box. The Black Nigella Seeds were harvested in Fayoum, Egypt.
Sabine – Pottery by Sabine
Sabine has been a potter for many years. Her immigration experience happened long ago when her parents brought her as a toddler from Germany to Canada. The Cultural Celebration Box included a heart shaped tea candle holder, each hand-shaped by Sabine.
Diana Siriwardana – Paper Feathers
Paper Feathers has a booth at the Bountiful Farmers Market in Edmonton (3696 97 St NW). They offer items such as Newspaper Bowls (many shapes, sizes and colours) crates, hamper baskets, garbage bins, place mats, coasters, different fruit baskets and pen holders. These unique products are made in Sri Lanka by Diana’s family owned business.
Diana provided beautiful newspaper bowls which were included in each Cultural Celebration Box. Visit her at the Bountiful Market, open Friday, Saturday and Sunday or drop her a note at paper.feathers.yeg@gmail.com .
