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Stonegate Farmers' Market 2017 Season & Farm to Table Video

The Stonegate Farmers' Market will open its 2017 season on Tuesday, June 20th at 194 Park Lawn Road. Be sure to stop by the Market for fresh food, music, events, the market BBQ and more!

Last year, Ed Dirse, from Nature's Way Organics, was our feature farmer in the video Farm to Table by Arlene Hazzan Green and Paul McNulty. Thanks to Carrot Cache, we were able to hire Arlene to create this fantastic film about the work it takes to be a farmer and sell at a Farmers' Market, such as Stonegate Farmers' Market.

  

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How Berry Road Food Co-op will keep itself affordable
by James Partanen

By now we hope every one knows that Berry Road Food Co-op will be opening in the Shoppes at Stonegate directly below the Stonegate Community Health Centre in early 2018, just ten months from now!  If you check out our website you'll see that the Co-op will be emphasizing local, organic products and household goods: we hope to be the neighborhood's one-stop grocery store.  But when most people think of a "natural" products grocery store, they tend to think that such a store will be more expensive than a budget supermarket.  Usually, that's exactly the case.  But Berry Road Food Co-op plans to be different, and here's how:
 
Double Shelving
Most supermarkets have a wide range of options in each product category, from premium high-price options to discount and no-name brands.  But most natural food stores concentrate on high-quality niche products that tend to be expensive.  Because Berry Road Food Co-op is not-for-profit and has the support of public funding we believe we have to do better than that.  So our Purchasing Committee will be selecting plenty of the usual niche products found in natural food stores, but each shelf will also include similar products that are affordable, even if we have to compromise on some of our purchasing criteria.  This process is called "double shelving" and is done in various food co-ops in the US, but to our knowledge has never been done in a food co-op here in Canada.  Our Purchasing Committee will be asked to find the best quality products possible at an affordable price, and our management will work directly with suppliers to focus discounts and product volume rebates on affordable product lines to further reduce our prices.  Double shelving is even better than a pure discount supermarket, because it allows price conscious shoppers to save money on most of their items, but still purchase quality local or organic products that they really care about, like local free-run eggs, or organic milk to support their children's health.  But that's not our only plan!
 
Good Food For All
The Good Food for All program will allow community members and shoppers who are well-off to directly support the food security of community members who need a helping hand in getting groceries on the table.  Some of our higher-priced items will have purple price tags, and some of our less expensive items will have green price tags.  What do these coloured tags mean?  If you are a Berry Road Food Co-op member and you want to directly contribute to the food security of other people in your community, you can sign up to be a Supporting Member!  When Supporting Members purchase products with purple price tags, a percentage the member agrees to will automatically be added to their bill.  This means that shoppers can consciously choose to set aside some of their grocery money to support others who don't have as much.  Meanwhile, if you're a community member who is struggling to provide healthy food for yourself or your family, you can apply to be a Supported Member.  When Supported Members purchase products with green price tags, a fixed percentage will be SUBTRACTED from their bill!  Because we are a co-op and we can track our member purchases carefully we will be able to demonstrate that all of the money we raise through sales of purple-tagged items or community donations goes to directly support access to food for individual community members in need!
 
Co-op principles include equality of access for all, and at Berry Road Food Co-op we take that principle very seriously!  We hope you're as excited about what we're planning as we are.

For more information about the Food Co-op,  please connect with James Partanen, Executive Director, at 647.479.9584 or james@berryroadfood.coop

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Stonegate CHC Summer Camp

Stonegate CHC will be running its summer camp again this season. Children ages 6 - 12 years of age are welcome to participate. The camp is located at St. Mark Catholic School at 45 Cloverhill Rd from 10:00 - 3:00 pm, Monday - Thursday from July 4th until August 17th. The FREE camp includes: snacks, crafts, arts, sports, games, cooking, field trips and more! 

Program Registration:  To register your child for the camp, please come in person to Stonegate Community Health Centre at 150 Berry Road, lower level, on Tuesday, June 13th starting at 5:30 p.m. Spaces are limited. For more information, please  call 416.231.7070 ext. 307.
 

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Arts Etobicoke Programming at Stonegate
by Giulia Simonato

Arts Etobicoke is thrilled to be partnering with Stonegate Community Health Centre this summer to bring arts programming to the Centre and Bell Manor Park.

Over three weeks in May, Arts Etobicoke presented Memoir Writing workshops led by Toronto-based, award winning author, Andrew J. Borkowski. Over 40 participants shared their stories and developed beautiful six-word poems of their lives. These poems will be on exhibition in the fall around the Stonegate Community, so please keep a look out for those in September!
 
Throughout July and August, two Toronto artists will be bring art to the Bell Manor Community Garden. Muralist Kirsten McCrea will be applying a beautiful new mural to the garden shed, and furniture-maker Emma Chorostecki will design a bench for inside the garden. Both these projects will incorporate poetry produced in a gardeners poetry workshop taking place on Saturday June 10th with Toronto writer and gardener, Angel Beyde. All are welcome to attend. 
 
Arts Etobicoke workshops will pick back up again in August with graffiti artist Mediah, who will be teaching youth about the art of graffiti-lettering; Mila Wood of Sing for Joy will be bringing choral singing to the community, and Shadowland Theatre will be working with community members to develop shadow puppets and paper lanterns, using inspiration from the stories of their lives. Registration will be required for Choral Singing, Paper Lanterns and Shadow Puppets workshops and can be completed by calling Stonegate CHC at 416.231.7070 ext. 307. If you have any questions about these workshops before then, please email Giulia at giulia@artsetobicoke.com
 
Finally, on September 15th, Arts Etobicoke and Stonegate Community Health Centre will be presenting a community celebration for all Stonegate residents. There will be great food and entertainment, so please mark your calendars for this end of summer celebration.