06/08/2026
DELEGATE SPOTLIGHT
Meet Jorgia Lindquist, our CYE Mentor and the 2026 Conference of the Americas CYE Winner! 🏆
Ready to take your business to the next level?
Apply until june 16 for a chance to be mentored by her:
https://www.jcicanada.com/cye-application
Jorgia Lindquist, BBA, is an Edmonton-based entrepreneur, community leader, and advocate for the power of food to connect people across cultures.
A recipient of the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal and EDIFY Emerging Leader of the Year, Jorgia has built her career at the intersection of business, community service, and cultural storytelling. Alongside her work in non-profits and education, she co-founded DON'YA Ukraine's Kitchen with her mother, which a brand born not from a business plan, but from a crisis.
Following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Jorgia and her team ran a donation centre that supported around 20,000 Ukrainian newcomers arriving in Alberta. Those same newcomers eventually returned to cook, volunteer, and share their traditions — and their spirit became the foundation of DON'YA. By 2023, the brand launched its first pop-up, introducing Canadians to handmade varenyky, holubtsi, and borshch crafted by newcomers rebuilding their lives in Canada.
Today, as co-founder & COO, Jorgia leads a brand that employs over 20 Ukrainian newcomers across its cafés, retail line, and manufacturing kitchen, with products in grocery stores across Alberta and catering from Edmonton to Calgary. In 2025, DON'YA appeared on CBC's Dragon's Den Season 20 and won JCI Canada's Creative Young Entrepreneur of the Year, a Square Top 50 Company Worldwide, and featured on PBS Food.
Jorgia also serves as the JCI Edmonton Local President, continuing a 95-year legacy of empowering young leaders and strengthening the local community.
