By Kristen Shane
In the wake of the Booth Street Loeb closure last year, a new survey shows the majority of Dalhousie residents support the creation of a new community grocery store to fill the void.
The survey, conducted by an advisory committee at Somerset West Community Health Centre, revealed 86 per cent of respondents would buy from a new retailer with similar size and selection as their current store.
About half of all people surveyed supported the idea, even if the potential store would be smaller, with less variety, or slightly more expensive but in a better location than where they shop now.
The results are good news for the advisory committee, which created the survey in September to gauge interest in a new food source amongst residents living north of Carling Avenue, between Bank Street and Parkdale Avenue.
“I’m really pleased that we have some energy to move forward,” says Gene Williams, a committee member and director of health promotion at Somerset West Community Health Centre.
Williams and his colleagues presented their findings late last month, to a packed room of about 40 people, who munched on organically-grown apples provided by the health centre, where the meeting took place.
People in attendance heard that 37 per cent of the 456 survey respondents stated they now spend more money buying food from stores on Wellington and Bank streets, at the edges of the area that used to be served by the former Loeb store.
“This community is still feeling the pain of losing the Loeb grocery store. And it’s obvious, even a year later, they’re still here and they’re still concerned,” says Williams.
To ease that concern, the committee suggested two potential grocery options at the meeting.
A food co-operative model is something many respondents recommended, according to Heather Hossie, the project consultant who evaluated the survey results.
Hossie says food co-operatives have been implemented in downtown communities in Regina and Saskatoon.
The co-ops typically require shoppers to pay a membership fee to buy groceries, she says.
This money would go to help manage the store. Every member would have a say in major administrative decisions.
Another proposed option is a non-profit store, run by a board of directors.
Those attending the meeting did not agree on a preferred method, but posed further questions about the potential store structure, the role of employees and volunteers.
They also discussed possible store locations, including the now-vacant Loeb store and others.
“There are lots of great ideas, different things that we hadn’t thought of,” says Hossie.
She says the committee will consider comments made at the meeting before recommending a specific plan.
“I’d like to see [a model] where people in the community really feel like they own the store,” says Cliff Gazee, a board member for the health centre.
Gazee says rallying behind the creation of a new grocery store would be a welcome change for Dalhousie residents, who have united in tragedy after a series of fires in recent years.
“This community . . . could come together under something that actually feeds and heals and nourishes,” says Gazee, who is also the co-chair of Just Food, an organization working to develop sustainable food networks.
Like nearly a third of survey respondents, Justin Barca lives in the area and walks to get his groceries from various stores in Chinatown and beyond.
After attending the meeting, Barca says he would not only like to buy from the proposed store, but also get behind the till.
“I’d be interested in getting my hands dirty with it: getting involved, volunteering, and/or becoming an employee.”
But he may have to wait until at least next year before getting a chance to dig in.
Williams says the committee will seek further input from more marginalized groups, not represented at the meeting.
It will then complete a market analysis and submit its final recommendations to the community in early 2008.