By Christine Otsuka
A community grocery store or co-operative food project may replace the Loeb store on Booth Street that closed last year.
The closure resulted in residents being left in a “food desert,” says Gene Williams, director of health promotion for Somerset West Community Health Centre.
Now the centre, in partnership with local organizations, is researching alternatives.
There are few options for affordable groceries within walking distance of the Dalhousie neighbourhood, posing particular access problems for those with limited mobility, fixed incomes or small children, Williams says.
In response to community concerns, the health centre, with funding from the Community Economic Development Technical Assistance Program, created a survey in mid-September that was distributed to some residents, clients and community partners.
The survey, open through to the end of this month, is designed to find out how those living or working between Bank Street, Parkdale Avenue and north of Carling Avenue are coping with the loss of their neighbourhood Loeb. The survey is looking to gauge whether people would support the idea of a food co-op.
The potential community grocery store would hire and train people from the community in addition to selling food and household items. The not-for-profit supermarket would be run by the community, for the community, with all profits going back into the operation of the grocery store.
Last year, more than 300 residents expressed their concerns over the closing of the Loeb at a community forum. It was at the forum that the energy and seeds for this idea were planted.
“There’s a strong feeling in this community that we need to find a solution to this food desert that’s been created in this neighbourhood,” Williams says. “Right now, we’re trying to see if this is the right solution.”
Resident Llewellyn Jackman has just come from a small ethnic food store on Somerset Street, with a bag of bananas in hand.
For Jackman, who has lived a few blocks from the old Loeb building for more than a decade, any solution is a good one.
Like many others in the community, he used to shop at the Loeb every week before it closed.
“I don’t know why they closed the old Loeb,” Jackman says. “I used to come here all the time. We all did.”
But when the Loeb closed, grocery shopping became a lot more inconvenient, Jackman says.
“As a diabetic, I used to be able to come here (to the Loeb) and get my apples for a reasonable price. Now I get some of my fruit from Chinatown but if I want cereal or brown bread or anything else I have to go all the way to the Giant Tiger downtown.”
Although Jackman he has yet to fill out the survey, he says he’d support a basic grocery store in the area, community or otherwise.
“Sure, that would be fantastic. Or another Loeb or a Loblaws. Anything like that would be great.”
Moe Garahan, director of Just Food and an adviser for the collaborative community project, agrees something should be done to help the residents of Somerset West and Centretown.
“For those with transportation or funds, losing the neighbourhood grocery store probably isn’t a big issue,” says Garahan. “But for those who bike, walk, have small children, fixed incomes or mobility issues, not having access to basic groceries becomes a pretty big issue.”
Williams says health is a concern because when the alternative is two bus rides away, residents may end up choosing more expensive unhealthy alternatives at local convenience stores.
To date, a number of organizations have partnered with the health centre offering technical support and participating on a project advisory board while the idea of a co-op remains in the preliminary stage. Centretown Community Health Centre, Just Food, Centretown Citizen Ottawa Corp. and a coalition of community residents have all signed on in support of the project.
Natasha Beaudin, the co-ordinator of the Good Food Box program at the Centretown Community Health Centre says she is in support of the co-op because there is a “definite need” in Centretown.
Meg McCallum from Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation agrees.
The private non-profit housing organization distributed the survey to more than 600 tenants of their housing developments near the former Loeb.
If the idea garners support from the community and if funds allow, the former Loeb building on Booth Street is one possible location for the co-op.
Williams says he hopes to have a progress report on the survey by the end of the month.
The survey is available until Oct. 31 at www.swchc.on.ca/web/index.html