³Ô¹ÏÍø

This website stores cookies on your computer. These cookies are used to collect information about how you interact with our website and allow us to remember your browser. We use this information to improve and customize your browsing experience, for analytics and metrics about our visitors both on this website and other media, and for marketing purposes. By using this website, you accept and agree to be bound by UVic’s Terms of Use and Protection of Privacy Policy.  If you do not agree to the above, you can configure your browser’s setting to “do not track.â€

Skip to main content
People Departments Maps Buildings Rooms A-Z
University
of Victoria
Apply Library
Sign in Online tools Sign out
Alumni

Farm, food and family!

November 06, 2025

A woman and man standing side by side outside under a sign that says Great Greens Farm Market.

Kim and Ryan Smith put their best food forward with Great Greens Farm Market in Cowichan Bay. The couple met at UVic, where both their children are current students.

Aisles of food in a grocery store.

Name: Kim and Ryan Smith

UVic degrees: Kim, BSc ’99 in Biology; and Ryan, BA ’12 in Social Sciences.

My business:

Where it’s located: Cowichan Bay, BC

What we do: We are a full-service specialty grocery store nestled in the Cowichan Valley. The market was born from a passion of cooking, providing healthy choices for our family and supporting the amazing variety of locally farmed and produced food. Our goal is to reduce the distance that food has to travel to get to your plate.

A burlap shopping bag that says Great Greens Farm Market sitting atop a counter in a grocery store.

Our team is: Positive, empowered and focused on growth and development. We employ 35 individuals in a small, tight-knit community, many of whom are just beginning their employment journey with us.

Two key members of our team, our children, Cade Smith and Graydon Smith, are attending UVic and are the third generation of Smiths to do so. Cade is in third year at Gustavson School of Business, and Graydon is in first-year Sciences. Ryan’s father, Randall (Randy) Newton Smith, graduated from Victoria College in 1959 then earned a BEd from UVic in 1967. Ryan’s mother, Janey M. Smith, graduated from UVic in 1967 with a BA in English.

A family posed for a picture in front of a lush backdrop of trees and bushes.
Both of Kim and Ryan's children currently attend UVic.

Why we’re unique: We are unique because of the carefully curated selection that we offer and the positive culture that we offer our entire team—from management to the many young employees that are just beginning their careers.

Our ideal customer is: Great Greens Farm Market is really for anyone who enjoys eating healthy, delicious meals made with farm fresh, locally sourced food.

A bag of pea shoots on a grocery store shelf.
Great Greens carries an assortment of goods from local farmers and producers.
Packages of fettuccine noodles on a grocery store shelf.

I wasn’t expecting…. The challenges of being a family-run, standalone store competing with large national and multinational chains. It has had its challenges, and carving out our own niche has been a really great accomplishment. We also underestimated how much Great Greens Farm Market would be a hub for the community and local producers.

A shelf filled with jars of spices.

Right now, our biggest challenge is: Adapting and overcoming trade barriers. Retail is constantly changing, but it feels as though everything has been sped up over the past five years.  We are small and agile and have leveraged this to react quickly to outside market influences.

We’ll know we’re successful when: When we started Great Greens Farm Market it was a new concept, and the location did not even exist. We are now in our 10th year of business, and it took the first four years to develop deep roots in our community and carve out a niche in a highly competitive environment. We feel successful because we have created a successful, profitable economic engine that employs a large number of people in a small community.

Outside of a grocery store featuring and old tractor and a sign that says Great Greens.

Where to find us: 4485 Trans Canada Highway, Cowichan Bay, BC right next to the Cowichan Bay Firehall at the intersection of Koksilah Road and Trans Canada Highway.

A man and woman standing side by side in a grocery store.

Bottom line: Entrepreneurship is all about identifying unique opportunities and then working very hard to overcome the challenges of seeing a dream come to fruition. We both feel fortunate that we get to do this together in a community that we both live in and love.