Writer and better food advocate Puneeta Chhitwal Varma

My first guest for the month of November is truly a citizen of the world. Puneeta Chhitwal Varma is the founder and writer behind the website Maple and Marigold where real food and sustainable living are viewed through the lens of cultural fusion. She is also the founder of Nourish by Numbers, a public service initiative the encourages growing a healthier planet through better food choices.

In this week’s episode of our Creative Canadian Women series I sit down to chat with Puneeta where she talks with us from her home in Toronto about her career path and what led her to starting Maple and Marigold, her love letter to Canada (Maple) and India (Marigold) and her passion for helping people make better choices for a healthier planet. She is also the first mom we’ve had as a guest on the podcast!

You may have seen Puneeta in one of her many television appearances, particularly in the GTA. She’s appeared on CBC, Global news, CHCH and, most recently, she had a guest appearance on The Social. She can often be seen talking in her segments about food, sustainable living and Indian celebrations. (Puneeta will be back next week to talk about how to drum up extra press for your creative business by securing media segments so don’t miss that episode!).

Listen To the Episode

Here’s a direct link to Episode 34 - or you can listen via the players below:

Growing Up All Over India

Puneeta grew up in India as the daughter of an Army officer and as such, her family moved regularly, rarely staying in one area longer than 18-24 months. As most kids of military parents can relate to, all that moving meant constantly being the new kid in school, having to make new friends and, in a country as diverse as India, it also meant adapting to sometimes very different surroundings and regional cultures.

Being stationed near the borders of China, Nepal and Pakistan at different points also meant having the threads of those cultures find their way into her daily life from language to culture to food to entertainment. It was a very vibrant way to grow up and gave her the opportunity to experience multiple cultures before she was old enough to travel on her own.

You’ll see this diversity reflected in Puneeta’s food. Indian food has many regional variations but for Puneeta, she is often incorporating different bits and pieces from all the places she grew up in her dishes. Those childhood experiences have given her a wealth of inspiration to draw upon!

Constantly moving as a kid made Puneeta very adaptive to change - something that most of us find very challenging. But for her, it became a way of life! While she does identify as a “closet” introvert, she really did love the nomadic life and it made her comfortable meeting new people and trying new things!

When You’re Not A Creative Kid

Puneeta did not identify as creative as a kid. Like a lot of us, she associated creativity with drawing and painting and as a kid, she was usually working so hard to fitting in to new surroundings and even trying to learn new languages. She was a self-professed people pleaser and being creative wasn’t on her mind. She just wanted to make friends, get good grades and try to insert herself into her new community!

As an adult, she feels being creative is a choice of freedom. She no longer has to worry about pleasing so many external forces and she can choose to be creative on her own terms - and perhaps there’s a lesson for us all in there. How many of us have avoided making time for creativity because we’re too busy trying to please everyone around us except ourselves?

While she didn’t identify as being creative, she did write - often in bursts - as a child. But she never viewed that as creative because it wasn’t what you did in art class! Even today, her daughter, who creates beautiful rainbow loom creations, doesn’t view herself as creative because she can’t draw. It’s a narrative we have to change!

A rainbow loom creation by Puneeta’s daughter

A Stop in Dubai BK (before kids)

When the time came to head into post-secondary education, Puneeta started out in marketing but, it was a white water rafting trip in grade 12 that led her to pursue a Masters degree in Tourism and Tourism Marketing (her actual goal was to become a white water rafting guide!). But the idea of connecting with other travelers and other cultures and languages made tourism a natural career path for an adventurous person like Puneeta.

After heading out on a 3 week honeymoon to Spain in the late 1990’s, her and husband decided to settle down in Pune - a university town in Western India - where she could finally put down roots for the first time in her life. And then…

A job opportunity in Dubai, UAE, came up for her husband and it seemed like an adventure that was too good to turn down. They spent 5 years in Dubai, where Puneeta worked in marketing for British Airways, and took full advantage of everything the city had to offer - including being flight hub to Asia and Europe which, along with Puneeta’s employee perks at BA, gave them ample opportunity to travel frequently.

As much as they loved Dubai and enjoyed the opportunities to camp in the desert, Puneeta knew that it wasn’t where they wanted to put down their permanent roots and half way through their time in Dubai, they put in their applications to emigrate to Canada.

Landing in Canada

Puneeta and her husband found a new home but they kept their old jobs - she was still with British Airways and her husband stayed with the same bank he had been with in Dubai but… a few months after arriving in Canada, Puneeta found out she was pregnant with her first child and then… they had an opportunity to move to Calgary! So they continued west and made Calgary their home for 8 years - the longest Puneeta had ever spent in one place.

Maple and Marigold

In 2016, Puneeta started her website, Maple and Marigold, which celebrates the life her family has built in Canada - the first place they’ve truly put down roots - and her upbringing in India. She describes it as a part of her journey - the experience of moving to Canada and the rootless life she had led pushed her to put down roots. And part of that process was writing - something she made a conscious effort to do regularly around 2014 after they moved to Toronto.

With two young children now and another new city to call home, writing became a way for her to express the journey (the many journeys!) she had taken to get to this place where she was ready to put down roots. But her new city meant long commute times and with two young children, the appeal of sitting in traffic was waning. And the thought of leaving the corporate world to focus on, and make a career out of, her writing was becoming a real possibility. So that’s what she did!

Maple and Marigold became her love letter to her new home and to the country she grew up in. She fuses both cultures through her food and her stories. Canada is a diverse country - one that actually reminds Puneeta of India in the sense that so many different cultures influence the fabric of the country. But the one thing Puneeta recognized could, and does, bring so many cultures here together was food.

Finding Her Voice

After four years, Puneeta feels she has found her voice. The stories that are important to her - food, diversity, inclusion, the colourful stories of life - have found a home at Maple and Marigold. The site has evolved as she has evolved, with sustainability and green initiatives playing a larger role in recent years - another pillar from her life since childhood.

Her passion for helping others learn to use what they have, reduce what they use, recycle what they can’t, as well as to make better choices around the small decisions they make every day that can impact our planet has also led to a new role: advocacy. Puneeta is a tireless advocate for reducing food waste and teaching others how they can do the same.

Her new Ebook, How To Shop Your Pantry, helps others learn how to cook better, waste less and regain control of their pantries. All the proceeds from the sale of the book are going to Second Harvest, Canada’s largest food rescue organization. Second Harvest works every day to rescue surplus food before it hits the landfill and redistributes it to those experiencing food insecurity across Canada.

Her new advocacy role has also led her to found Nourish By Numbers

Nourish by Numbers

Nourish by Numbers is a public service initiative Puneeta has founded to help people contribute to a healthier planet by making better food choices through education and science based information. By understanding where our food comes from and the journey it takes to get to our plate, we are able to make better decisions about what we consume. The site is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Her goal today is to reach as many people as possible to show them that we can all live an abundant, colourful, yet sustainable and green life through better daily choices.