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“‘Nourishment for a change’ is our tagline,” says Shields. “We’re committed to trying to bridge the gap so people with lower incomes have access to healthy local food.”

Shields readily admits that such change will take years, but the for-profit co-op has already made some concrete choices that help.

“We realized that if we didn’t own our own building, we would have no security about our future,” says Shields. So the group raised $1.6 million from community investors to purchase and renovate a building, and now leases out space on the second floor to like-minded businesses.

“We can sit down with farmers and talk about what we will buy from them down the road,” says Shields. “They say ‘Really? You’re going to plan more than a year in advance and commit to us?'”

West End Well also welcomes farmers to set up under the striped awnings on the front of the building, using the space as a CSA (Community Shared Agriculture) drop-spot, so customers can pick up orders directly from the farm.

So far, the shop carries produce from about a dozen area farms, including Roots & Shoots, Watarah Downs and Barefoot Gardens, which is part of Just Food’s start-up farm program in Blackburn Hamlet.

Having a café as well as a food shop allows West End Well to buy not just the perfectly presentable fruits and vegetables, but also ones that taste good but look ugly.

“If we’ve got a big batch of peaches that’s getting soft spots, I can use them in the kitchen,” says Jolliffe, who was planning to make some peach-and-hot-pepper preserves. “It means that farmers can sell their whole harvest and we can keep costs down in the kitchen.”