About us

We are driven to serve low-income communities because we have experienced food insecurity ourselves.  Due to strong support and favourable circumstances, we were able to grow our own prosperity through education and hands-on training. Now that we have financial stability, we want to give back to the Niagara community with the knowledge and resources that we have acquired.  Our solution is based on offering training courses, entrepreneurial workshops, and business career resources and helping individuals find a permanent way to solve food insecurity.

We focus on personal growth and development. Through soft-skill and hard-skill educational programs at our facility in Niagara Falls. Along with the online course curriculum that we’re developing, we hope to continue our new approach to solving food insecurities in the Niagara Region.

Join us in our community goal. Participate in our mission. Reach out to us to see how you can be a part of this great movement.

Meet our Board

Helen Castonguay

Co-Founder, Volunteer Executive Director, Chair of the Board

Helen has a wide variety of entrepreneurial interests, including technical roles but has always been boots-on-the-ground customer service focused. With over three years running her own technical consulting business working for a major Canadian Banking Institution – Helen’s experience is extremely well-rounded.
Helen’s success story begins as a founder of brick-and-mortar retail stores, including a Greenhouse Business and Country Store. All while simultaneously starting and running a health and beauty e-commerce service. Her success story is built on a foundation of mentoring and teaching, with various expertise and driven in the customer service field. Helen is now employed as the Executive Director of Cultivating Hope Foundation. Helen brings a wealth of teaching skills to entrepreneurs and startups and is a key educator and mentor.

Gregory Castonguay

Co-Founder, Director and treasurer of the Board

Gregory Castonguay is an Information Technology Consultant and Chief Information Officer at a major Managed Service Provider in Toronto and the GTA. With over 25+ years in the financial and legal sectors, Gregory brings a wealth of business startup experience and consulting expertise to Cultivating Hope Foundation educational platform.
Gregory is an accomplished entrepreneur with various experience in professional IT Services, IT Support, including Cybersecurity. With an accumulation of years’ worth of growth and IT Education, Mentoring, and one-on-one instructor – Gregory is a major contributor to the curriculum that deals with Technology and Business startups program at Cultivating Hope.

Neetan Sapra

Director

Lori Busse

Director

Lori is a driven, experienced entrepreneur and has served as an executive board member on several occasions. Throughout her career and employment opportunities, Lori has continued to focus on self-driven success. With a key interest always in helping others. Lori’s ventures go far beyond the domestic. Owning a consulting business with a Japanese company - Kangen Water, providing Hydrogen-Rich, Antioxidant, Alkaline drinking water.
As a Toronto Argonaut Alumni and Toronto University Alumni, Lori’s earlier focus on music and teaching has paved her way to Cultivating Hope’s business startup and entrepreneurial education platform. Lori brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise in teaching others and mentoring potential business startups.