The Grainery Food Co-op opened its doors in Halifax in 2001. For the past 25 years it’s goal has been to offer affordable and accessible healthy options to the Halifax community. “It’s an alternative way of doing things. It not only does it make food cheaper, more accessible and healthier and better for the environment it also builds community through it. So, it is overall a better experience for society,” says Spencer Osber, Grainery Co-op member. The entire store is filled with jars, whether it’s dried nuts, wheat, dried fruit or types of beans. It’s a straightforward process to shop here, you either bring your own container or use one of the stores and fill it with whatever products you desire. The price is based on weight; the team removes the weight of the container before weighing the product. Osber says their focus is on keeping prices low. “You go into the grocery store these days and things are extremely expensive. I come here and I easily cut hundreds of dollars off my own personal grocery bill,” says Osber. The store is entirely volunteer run, their hours depend on the availability of the volunteers. Osber says they are looking for more volunteers, as after the pandemic many stopped volunteering. “We would like to expand our hours because the pandemic kind of sucked a lot of our volunteers we would like to be able to extend our hours like it was before the pandemic,” says Osber. Mellonie Burke has been a volunteer here for the past 15 years, she not only loves the products and shopping here, but she does it for the community. “All kinds of goods like soap, even things like dried pineapple and mangoes to nuts and fruit in the fridge,” says Burke. She volunteers every Wednesday and says she wants to keep this place alive and kicking. She says it’s been around for 25 years, and they want to do 25 more. “They really appreciate the fact that we are here. There is no other, not just co-operative but place that is like this that sells goods they can trust and mostly organic and run by volunteers that care,” says Burke. During open hours, the store is quite busy, with lineups out the front door. Tuesday and Wednesday nights are their busiest since they offer a community supported agriculture group where people can get fresh produce from local farmers they distribute to their store. “A farmer like Hutton Farms from outside the city will bring in produce and vegetables to distribute to people who subscribe,” adds Osber. Kit Bowman is subscribed to the program, and she looks forward to her weekly produce box. For her, it’s about the good quality. “We love what Ted grows and getting healthy organic food,” says Bowman. The goal for this shop is to expand the Grainery model to other places in Nova Scotia, making food more accessible to all. “Food access is an issue everywhere and we have a model that works. So, we would like to see if we can establish that in other communities to try and help other people have healthy, affordable food,” says Osber. For those looking to check out the Grainery, no membership is required and its hours of operation are on its website. If you want to volunteer, reach out to the team as they say they would love more help. For more Nova Scotia news, visit our dedicated provincial page
