Downtown businesses step up food-empowerment measures

Seven months after Wal-Mart closed in Station Mall, core-area merchants are stepping up to fill the resulting downtown food-desert void.

"We are going to try to sell everything that is essential, from condiments to bread to fresh produce, along with cleaning products, laundry detergent, things like that," said Ryan Alexander, program manager at Grocer 4 Good, during a 'soft' opening Saturday at 133 Gore Street.

"We plan on being open at least Tuesday to Friday, 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. And then on Saturday from 11 a.m. probably, until 4 p.m.," Alexander told SooToday.

"We may, down the line, maybe try to open up our hours of operation a little bit more once we get more people on board and more volunteers joining us."

"The only thing we won't be selling is meat out of a fridge or freezer, because City Meat Market is down there and we just don't have the capacity yet."

"We had a lot of people come in today. We had a lot of people that are interested in volunteering, We had a lot of people that are just interested in the store," Alexander said.

Grocer 4 Good is set up as a registered charity, the brainchild of Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen.

The business will hire individuals with barriers to employment including autism and Down Syndrome.

Fresh produce was in short supply on Saturday but the start-up is negotiating to get those items provided by Harvest Algoma.

Elsewhere in the downtown area, Station Mall Drug Mart has significantly increased its food offerings in recent weeks, including coolers stocked with milk, juice, cheese, butter and luncheon meats.

The Dollarama at Station Mall has also recently added a new aisle of packaged foods to its previous stock.