A VISION FOR OUR WORLD PLANTING SEEDS OF CHANGE
We envision a world where all people and nature are valued and contribute to the health and well-being of all forms of life. Living Ways Foundation, a registered Canadian charity, is planting seeds of change and growing a movement to actively create such a world.
Everything we do is rooted in love for the land, for community, and for the generations to come. Our sanctuary space is where people gather not just to grow food, but to grow relationships, resilience, and a deeper connection with nature. We focus on integrated ecosystem regeneration and restoring human wellbeing through a community-based approach, and the healing relationship between them.
Today, many indicators show that something essential has been lost in our world, our communities, and our hearts. Our connections seem forgotten. We’ve disconnected from the land, from each other, and from the wisdom within us. The consequences are real: rising food insecurity, damaged ecosystems, a mental health crisis, and fractured communities. We are losing the wisdom of how to live well together on this earth, together. These are challenges felt across our planet, in Canada, in our communities, on our land, and in the lives of our people.
Living Ways Foundation is restoring these connections. We are developing a flagship model that grows food and medicinal plants, restores land, reconnects people, and shares wisdom. We designed it with the hope that communities across our country will replicate it. Our response is focused here in Canada, grounded in community, rooted in the land, and built to last. As the organization grows, our vision includes online workshops, digital resources, and mobile programming so communities across the country can replicate the knowledge and practices we are proving here.
OUR VALUES PLANTING SEEDS OF CHANGE
Our Mission
Our mission is to develop and share practical knowledge and wisdom-based initiatives that deepen our connection with nature and enable healing and positive change for all people.
Our Values
Compassion | Respect | Reciprocity | Integrity
What Matters:
Cherishing our Planet
Care and respect for the earth and the diversity of species which inhabit our planet is foundational to all we do. Although aware we cannot fix the entire world at once, we believe in infinite possibilities.
Children & Youth
Commitment to investing in children and youth is a priority of Living Ways Foundation. Believing in themselves, celebrating their cultural heritage, and developing key values will give children and youth the life skills to affect change in our world.
Nature
Acknowledging nature as being a primary teacher of innate wisdom and source of healing and wellness is the foundation for numerous events and programs at Living Ways Foundation. Though modernity and technology have certain gifts, they leave many disconnected from the beauty and magic of nature.
Poverty Relief
Understanding that poverty limits access to growth, skills and potential, Living Ways seeks to use innovative strategies to foster access to programs and education.
Food Security
Learning how to grow, harvest, store and share organic, naturally nutritious food achieves many positive and broad-ranging outcomes: from restoring our relationship with nature, and building inclusive communities to addressing economic, social and health disparity.
The Way of The Heart
Living Ways recognizes that the expansive qualities of the heart such as compassion and generosity create significant opportunity to raise hope in the face of despair.
Transformational Wholistic Ways
Living in extraordinary times full of uncertainty and potential, Living Ways Foundation recognizes the essentialness of increasing consciousness and maximizing human potential. We aspire to have holistic initiatives inclusive of mind, body, heart and spirit.
Sharing Wisdom
Living Ways aims to increase awareness of the powerful role of elders/wisdom keepers, as well as disseminating their messages and supporting the concept of eldership for children, youth and adults.
Staff
Leslie Fell founded Living Ways Foundation, drawing on a Master of Health Science and senior leadership experience in health and community development. She purchased 100 acres in Northumberland County, Ontario, to create a sanctuary space—a living demonstration that caring for the land and caring for each other are inseparable.
In 2026, we are thrilled to have contract positions for: Garden Coordinator, Dana Smith and Volunteer Coordinator, Julian Youd. Additionally, over the summer, thanks to Canada Summer Jobs, we had 3 exceptional students and a recent Environmental Studies graduate.
Leslie Fell has 35+ years of leadership experience in health and community care, including developing and transforming organizations. She holds degrees in Community Health and Rehabilitation Medicine, and is a mother of two sons and a grandmother.
From a young age, Leslie was inspired by the writings of Henry David Thoreau and a love for the natural world. Connection with scholars and Indigenous elders, along with encounters with children abroad, ignited a calling to act for the wellbeing of both planet and humanity, a calling that led her to found Living Ways Foundation.
Leslie strongly believes in the power of philanthropy. As Executive Director, she guides Living Ways Foundation's work regenerating land, growing food and medicinal plants, and sharing wisdom. It's rooted in the belief that healing the land and healing communities are inseparable — a shared vision of reconnection with nature, with each other, and with the wisdom within ourselves.
DJ Lewis is the Garden and Ecosystem Manager at Living Ways Foundation, bringing years of professional experience in the wine industry in Australia and Canada, along with time on a commercial flower farm in eastern Ontario. Raised on a small hobby farm striving for self-sufficiency on the outskirts of Adelaide, South Australia, DJ developed a lifelong passion for permaculture and sustainable living.
Today he lives that passion every day with his wife and two children on their 2.5-acre homestead near Campbellford, growing good things through practices rooted in the ethics and principles of permaculture and care for the land and its ecosystems.
DJ brings this experience to Living Ways as Garden and Ecosystem Manager, leading the care of the gardens, trails, and grounds, guiding a team of coordinators, students, and volunteers, and developing hands-on educational programs rooted in regenerative land care.
Board of Directors
Living Ways Foundation is guided by a committed and skilled Board and advisors with professional expertise across relevant fields. The Board is supported by legal and accounting professionals who ensure sound governance and financial stewardship.
Currently Principal, Cprax Consulting and Director BKM Inc., Chris is a seasoned business professional with more than 35 years of of progressive work in marketing consulting and market/social research. He is passionate about marketing and inspiring organizational teams to exceed the expectations of their customers and stakeholders. In addition to being on the board of BKM, he has served as on the management committees of several firms and as an Office of Ipsos Canada. He has also been involved in community organizations as a volunteer or Board Member working on housing issues, alleviation of poverty and private childcare.
Joan is the Principal of Life Force Physiotherapy and has over 30 years of experience in health care. She is passionate about empowering people to optimize all aspects of their health, to work with what is and to align their wellness with what is meaningful in their life. Joan has developed a brand within the physiotherapy industry that recognizes the privilege of strengthening people at their most vulnerable and also most powerful times in their life. A keen nature lover and a believer in the healing power of nature, stillness, compassion and love. Joan is passionate about empowering others to thrive and to create the life they envision.
Amanda is a Certified Health and Life Coach and Yoga Nidra Instructor with over a decade in the wellness industry. She combines holistic health, nutrition, mindfulness, energy healing, and nervous system regulation to support her clients in self-care, healing, and transformational growth. Amanda’s passion for health and wellness includes the preservation of nature. She’s committed to sustainable food practices and life choices. In her free time, Amanda loves being outdoors, practicing yoga, and creating healthy meals for herself and her family.
Julia is an interdisciplinary eco-artist and the founder of Upward Spiral, her practice for embodied healing. She facilitates forest gatherings, retreats and relational creative art-making experiences. She is a member of Wild Soma, a collective for embodiment research. She is a member of Double Pendulum Collective. After their interdisciplinary artists’ residency at a neuroscience lab, the collective is currently researching with mushrooms. Julia’s own research focuses on human and tree relations. Julia is a movement teacher, on faculty at the Centre for Indigenous Theatre. Julia is a Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying) focusing on walk and talk therapy that offers practices of kinship and reciprocity with more than humans. In all her work, Julia is committed to reaching towards mutual thriving for all beings.
Avery is a Registered Dietitian whose path into nutrition grew from a genuine calling to nourish both people and the planet. A committed volunteer at Grace Gardens for several years, she helps grow healthy food and community connection. In her practice, Avery takes a lifestyle medicine approach, understanding that true health is woven through how we eat, move, connect, and relate to the natural world. She strives to keep growing and learning so others can live well and in harmony with nature.
Advisors
Dr. Diana Beresford-Kroeger
BSc.med.ciochem., BSc.bot., MSc., PhD., Dipl Surf., LLD
Brad Peterson
M.L.A., BSc., OALA, CSLA