Updated Jan. 26 at 12 p.m.
Eat Local Sudbury issued the following statement Friday morning:
"It is with heavy hearts that we announce that at 8:20 Thursday night, under the recommendation of our Board of Directors, our membership voted to close our store and dissolve the Eat Local Sudbury Cooperative.
"Over the past few years we have strived to make changes to make our co-op financially sustainable, but we have not managed to recover from the financial crisis in which we found ourselves in 2016. With the help of our dedicated members and customers, we have managed to pay off our debts to our farmers and producers. However, the steady decline in membership and sales over the last 2 years has led us to make the difficult decision to close our operations.
"The Board’s recommendation comes upon review of the co-op’s finances at the end of the 2017 fiscal year, looking ahead to the 2018 growing season. We cannot in good conscience ask for commitments from our farmers and CSA members without the certainty of being able to fulfill our commitments to them. Though this decision is difficult for everyone involved, we believe that it is the wisest course of action available.
"It has been an honour and a privilege to work with our local farmers and community members over the last ten years. We are proud of the work that we have done in bringing local food to the people of Sudbury and we believe in the community that has rallied around us. Although this is the end of our journey, we hope that it will be the beginning of something new for the local food movement in Sudbury."
Original story:
A local farmer said he's forced to make alternate arrangements to sell his produce after members of the Eat Local Sudbury co-op voted Thursday evening to dissolve the 11-year-old organization.
Eat Local Sudbury, which runs a downtown Sudbury store featuring mostly Northern Ontario food products, will close March 1.
Stuart McCall, who served on Eat Local Sudbury's board until stepping down earlier this month as the organization spiralled into the red, said the co-op had been struggling of late.
A few years ago, the store had made $1 million in sales, but that dropped to just $500,000 last year.
Eat Local's impending closure is a “sad story,” McCall said.
“I feel bad for the staff that run the store, because we really, really worked hard and tried to raise funds to keep the co-op going, and we managed to keep it going until now,” he said.
“But looking at the forgoing budget, the losses are just mounting.”
He blames the financial problems in part on frequent staff turnover.
The money issues ended up having a cascading effect. Because of the lack of funds, the store couldn't even properly re-stock shelves, McCall said.
“So the store looked kind of bare,” he said. “One thing leads to the next. That's what made the downfall.”
With the loss of Eat Local, McCall, who runs McGrows Farms and Gardens, a small, organic farm in Garson, said he'll sell his wares at the city's farmers market and at the farm gate as usual.
He's also reached out to the grocery stores in Garson and Capreol, and they've expressed interest in selling his produce.
“But the small producers — just start-ups, basically — they're going to struggle because they have no place to market their wares,” McCall said.
Eat Local members are also obviously losing out with the co-op's impending closure. The shop was one of only two downtown grocery stores. “They have to go and look at other venues to purchase their food,” McCall said.
Also lost is the organization's social mandate, including the promotion of locally grown food and food security, topics that especially interest McCall.
He said he actually stepped down from the co-op's board because there was less focus on those topics of late because of the financial problems.
McCall said he'll now devote his energy to the the Greater Sudbury Food Policy Council, which also focuses on these kinds of topics.
If you'd like to visit Eat Local Sudbury before it closes, the store is located at 176 Larch St. For more information, visit the co-op's website.
