Paula and the Traveling Granola Bar
Providence Granola Project Entrepreneur Assistant Paula Cunanan doesn’t like to go far without access to one of the world’s tastiest granola bars.
Beautiful Bars in a vineyard in Poppiano, Florence, Italy (left), a permaculture garden in Villa do Paco, Portugal (middle), and an apple orchard in Stocken, Switzerland (right).
That’s why when she traveled through Europe volunteering at organic farms, she took along a good supply. Then, picking up on an idea of PGP Director of Strategic Partnerships Anne Dombrofski, she decided to post “Where In the World” photos of her traveling granola bars on PGP’s Facebook and twitter pages.
Paula has worked part-time at PGP and is now full-time at an organization housed in the same building, the Social Enterprise Greenhouse (SEG). At SEG, she is focusing her social-justice energies on managing inclusivity initiatives.
Paula explains how it came about that the granola bars got a beautiful trip to Europe. “A roommate from college and I had been planning our Europe trip a month before I started working at PGP in November 2015. We wanted to travel, so why not now? It was perfect!
“My work for PGP ended in April, and she was starting graduate school in September. We left for Europe in April 15 and traveled to Portugal, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Ireland for two and a half months.
“While in Europe, we volunteered at different farms through an organization called WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities for Organic Farming). We WWOOF-ed in Portugal, Italy, Switzerland, and Ireland. It was a cheap way to travel, but also a great way to get out of the typical touristy areas and get to live and learn from the locals.”
She posted the PG granola bar photos just for fun, but now she is thinking about ways to promote the social enterprise’s products aggressively. “I would like to be more active and promote sales in social media and email newsletters, help PGP with marketing materials to use for sales, events and farmers markets, while engaging the local community through partnerships with other organizations.
“I really enjoy working at PGP. You can tell how much love and passion goes in the work that they do! From the staff to the trainees, they all have experience to share and stories to tell. Everything about PGP and the impact they have in the community is truly inspiring. I couldn't ask for a better organization to be a part of!”
Paula’s social consciousness should be making alma mater Holy Cross proud. And it looks like she’s committed to this kind of work for the long term. But as you can tell from her adventures in Europe working on farms and seeing the sights, she has a variety of interests.
“Outside of work,” Paula adds, “I'm either in the kitchen baking, taking photographs, or doodling on a sketchbook.”
Caroline Ellis of SuzannesMomsBlog submitted this post.