Toronto’s only locavore grocery is now selling “dinner plate shares” in a bid to stay afloat.

Culinarium owner Kathleen Mackintosh hopes customers will buy $50,000 to $100,000 worth of grocery shares so she doesn’t have to let her lease expire in February.

A $500 share is worth $600 in groceries spread over three years. A $1,000 share offers a $1,300 return.

Putting out a cry for help in a Dec. 7 email to 1,000 customers was a terrifying and humbling experience for Mackintosh.

“It felt like I would be standing in front of my customers naked and declaring I had failed,” she admits. “I felt so incredibly vulnerable and alone.”

Within 48 hours, she had “declarations of interest” for $14,000 worth of shares. She needs “100 to 150 hungry eaters” to commit by Dec. 20. If she gets enough pledges, she’ll formally accept the money and hand out shares.

On Tuesday night from 7:30 to 9 p.m., Mackintosh will host a wine, cheese and chat at her Mt. Pleasant Rd. store to explain the “raw numbers” behind the business and detail her plans to turn things around.

Culinarium opened in April 2008 with a mission to fill people’s plates with “local, mindfully and sustainably produced” Ontario foods.

It carries several hundred products at a time, including frozen meat and fish, fresh cheese and dairy, and dried goods like nuts, flours, grains, syrups and preserves. Some inventory comes in weekly through 100km Foods. Mackintosh’s father, a retiree, makes regular drives around the province to pick up goods from 100 suppliers.

Interest in local food is growing, new customers arrive daily and sales are climbing, but Mackintosh still isn’t making enough to cover operating costs. She needs better cash flow to invest in things like staff and training, and make better use of social media. (Culinarium just created a Facebook page and has barely used its Twitter account, @Culinarium_TO.)

“A share program is kind of like a loan,” explains Mackintosh. “It would let me put in place programs to drive sales for growth down the road.”

The share concept isn’t new to ardent locavores. It’s starting to be seen as a way to bypass supermarkets and help create an alternative food distribution system that puts more money into the pockets of the people who grow, raise and create food.

Community shared agriculture (CSA) shares are already popular. Farmers get cash up front and don’t have to worry about how and where to sell their crops. Consumers get a weekly haul of food while sharing the risk of a bad season.

Perhaps the most successful share program has been Monforte Dairy in Stratford.

Owner/lead cheesemaker Ruth Klahsen offered up cheese shares in 2009 after her lease fell through and she had to move or close.

She raised $410,000 by convincing more than 900 people to buy cheese shares at $200, $500 and $1,000 a pop. Shareholders get their returns in cheese over five years. The dairy got a new home (with a store) in Stratford, plus a fiercely loyal customer base.

Things are going so well that Monforte just launched a second share program in a bid to be able to produce its own charcuterie, baked goods and preserves. It has already raised $12,000.

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“We could sure use the money but I believe it is the universe saying it is someone else’s turn and hopefully that will be Kathleen (Mackintosh),” says Klahsen.

“I set this up as a business model in the hope it would work for other people, so my fingers are crossed.”

jbain@thestar.ca