Affordable grocery program grows in Winnipeg

A plan for affordable groceries championed by a late city councillor has grown in Winnipeg.

The late Winnipeg city councillor Jason Schreyer’s torch for affordable groceries continues and expands.

The Jason Schreyer Grocery Access Program has moved to St. Gerard School after its initial opening in July 2025 at Morse Place Community Centre in Elmwood and East Kildonan.

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Now filling the school’s gymnasium on the first, third and fifth Saturdays of every month between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., the program aims to be a “bridge program,” according to the program’s project manager Christian Sweryda.

“(It will) help people that are struggling but wouldn’t go to a food bank but can’t afford a store. So it’s kind of an in-between,” he said.

It all comes down to getting groceries “as cheap as possible.”

“After we get sales, a lot of stores help us procure large amounts of cheaper groceries and then we sell it at what’s ultimately break-even to help the people in this community.”

For Sweryda, the program has become a “full-time unpaid job.”

“I spend days hauling food. I store it everywhere I possibly can.”

The pricing of products includes “a little bit of surpluses built in” to pay for storage and warehousing, but most of it goes back into purchasing, according to him.

Jennifer Plishka is a volunteer with the program who found Chris and offered “any type of help he needs, because poor guy is spread thin.”

“My favourite thing about the program – it’s a great group of individuals here and it’s supporting the community in the way that they need it.

“You’ve got people that live in housing that come out to purchase groceries here. That gives them a sense of confidence – knowing that they’re still providing for their family.”

The impact of the program can be seen from the size of purchases.

“We have a lot of people coming in that do group orders for families that aren’t mobile … I’ve been hearing it’s lowering grocery bills a lot for some of the people that are really struggling in the community,” said Sweryda.

“We have many people that are doing orders for their entire building – especially we focus on Manitoba Housing complexes, areas like that, and the response has been very positive.”

Moving and growing

The program moved to the school in November – according to the school’s principal Jean Gilbert – until it was formally adopted by the school’s board in December.

The school will establish a separate panel to run the program, and Schreyer’s brother-in-law Jason Chan – chair of St. Gerard School’s board – will head the panel, according to a news release.

Since moving the program to the school, it has grown in size – in number of volunteers, businesses helping and offerings.

“Flying Pizza has been hugely helpful. They just give pizza to the volunteers – that goes a long way. We’ve had a storage place that lowered the price of the rental unit just to help the program,” Sweryda said. “Penner Trucking really needs a shout-out because they’ve been moving full semi truck trailers of food for us for free.”

Plishka said the program’s growth has been substantial.

“It’s not just limited to certain products anymore. It’s grown, it’s adding more – and now they’ve got the freezer section, the dairy section. It’s definitely helping more people out, especially with dietary needs as well.”

Continuing Schreyer’s vision

Sweryda was Schreyer’s assistant for three years and said the late councillor helped him “build a foundation for (the program).”

“Jason cared hugely about people in the community and the price of groceries. That was one of the things that really bothered him. He talked a lot about the increased cost of living and how much he wanted to help alleviate it.”

It was a team effort, with Schreyer going “all in with this model.”

“He used to come to Safeway with me at 10 o’clock at night and just fill his van with foods with me and we’d haul it into – in some cases – his living room where we didn’t have enough space in the storage for it.

“Jason’s living room was stocked to the ceiling with food just leading up to his passing,” Sweryda remembered.