Melody Li
From Rescue to Table: Community Kitchens Across Cultures | Markham, Ontario
Melody Li is a driven and dedicated first-generation Chinese-Canadian with a strong work ethic and a passion for making a positive impact. She brings diverse experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, including student leadership and outreach, virtual facilitation, administration, sales, lead generation, and hospitality. Passionate about sustainability, climate action, social justice, and health equity, Melody has recently pivoted to the environmental non-profit sector, where she applies her skills to work that she finds meaningful. She interned with the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (CCGHC) as Research Assistant/Project Coordination Assistant before joining the Sierra Club Canada Foundation (SCCF) as Communications Assistant.
About the Project
From Rescue to Table: Community Kitchens Across Cultures is a year-long, bimonthly series of cook-along demonstrations led by local POC chefs at rotating POC-owned food businesses and public plazas across the GTA. The series teaches community members to transform rescued surplus food into culturally rooted, authentic, low-cost, and sustainable dishes—helping people reconnect with their cultural identity while turning kitchens and public spaces into inclusive, environmentally responsible hubs where communities can flourish. Events are held in-person with simultaneous livestreaming to build inclusion and city-building leadership, showing that rescued food can be delicious, dignified, and a catalyst for more diverse, connected neighbourhoods.