Wondering who is behind Your Product Hub? 

Meet Carolyn Kates and find out what she really does:

Carolyn Kates is the self proclaimed queen of growing things! After leaving a ten year career in the organic grocery industry(Whole Foods), as the unofficial steward of all things locally grown and raised in and around San Diego, Carolyn chucked it all and jumped into the legal cannabis market in 2016. After learning the ropes, bringing a precision pre-roll to market, she landed at Pure Ratios, a SD CBD company, where she made things happen again, connecting with San Diegans of all ages and helping them heal through cannabis. Unfortunately, Pure Ratios went the way of many start up cannabis companies-they went away and out of business. And currently Carolyn works for Columbia Care, a BCC licensed adult-use dispensary, doing marketing, promotions and community outreach.

The road less traveled that got Carolyn where she is today began as a RN, BSN, NP. After spending 25 years helping people die as a Hospice RN (MSN NP), she retired eighteen years ago and changed her focus to helping people live and helping the planet to thrive through healthy eating, farming and spiritual care. 

Carolyn began her new focus on living in the kitchen of Whole Foods Market Hillcrest, where she spent two years learning the basics about healthy cooking, eating and how to function within a commercial kitchen.  Her ten-year career with Whole Foods Market would include eight years of marketing, where she focused on local vendors and farmers.  In that role, she assisted over 120 local farms and businesses gain access and thrive at WFM Hillcrest. She also worked with Joel Fuhrman (Eat Right America) and became a healthy eating specialist, rolling out Whole Foods Market’s Health Starts Here program and conducting five 28- day Health Eating challenges.

However, Whole Foods Market couldn’t teach Carolyn everything she desired to know about a lot of things.  So, she ventured out to work directly for several local farms, farmers markets and for local vendors.  Carolyn has worked for or with Suzie’s Farm, Olivewood Gardens, Wild Willow Farms, Be Wise Ranch,Cyclops Farms,  Coral Tree Farms, BatBread & Cie, San Diego Weekly Markets, Eco-Life Conservation, KidsEcoClub, Edible San Diego, Art Walk San Diego, The Friends of Balboa Park, Eclipse Chocolate, Café Gratitude and Wild Thyme Catering, just to name a few of the organizations and businesses.   She also has done over 350 community events in the past ten years, ranging from health seminars, cooking classes, fundraisers to farm to table dinners throughout San Diego County, including the Berry Good Night Dinner 2014 and 2015.

In the creation of Your Product Hub, Carolyn merged her two careers.  She created new venues in which she will utilize the healing skills that she obtained through her many years as a Hospice nurse and her knowledge of healthy eating, regenerative farming and spiritual self care.  To those efforts, Carolyn wrote a grant through the Autism Tree Project Foundation and received funding from Kaiser Permanente for her Food, Farming and Nutrition Program at Wild Willow Farm.  She plans to impact close 100's of families, impacted by Autism,  through that program this year(2018).

Although this website remains, Carolyn has moved on a now is looking for her next adventure!