Downtown grocery ran into roadblocks
Q: Just wondering what has become of the Garden City Food Co-op?
A: The dream of a downtown St. Catharines grocery store was shared by many, but in the end after a lot of hard work, it didn’t pan out.
The Garden City Food Co-op, launched more than four years ago, was dissolved by its membership on May 28.
“It’s the last thing any of us wanted,” said Mark Shantz, former President of the Board of Directors. “We all had a shared dream that we would be able to bring a co-operative grocery store to downtown St. Catharines. It’s really hard to face that we weren’t able to accomplish that goal.”
Out of money and volunteer power, the board had recommended the co-op fold.
“We were faced with a number of issues, financial and as well our volunteer base was essentially exhausted. At that point there’s really not much that’s pushing the organization forward,” he said. “Based on those realities we decided to recommend the co-op dissolve.”
Shantz said there are fringe accomplishments though. Research conducted for the co-op, including a market study, was passed on to the City of St. Catharines to use for wooing potential grocery stores to the core.
And there’s also now dozens, if not hundreds of people, who have learned about community organizing through the grocery co-op experience and could help with future projects that address community needs.
“It’s a shame but sometimes ideas aren’t ready the first time around. Sometimes it takes a few tries before an idea really catches on,” Shantz said. “Who knows? I feel like one day there will be a co-operative grocery store in downtown St. Catharines, it just might not be this year but maybe 10 years from now.”
The idea for a downtown grocery store was spearheaded by community volunteers in 2011 who wanted a healthy food store option in the core. The Garden City Food Co-op was launched in March 2013.
In 2014, it began offering memberships for a one-time share fee of $120 which would be used as part of the $1.4 million needed to open the store.
By the end, there were 692 memberships sold.
A capital campaign was targeted for launch in 2015 but was hit with an unexpected delay.
The co-op required the Financial Services Commission of Ontario to approve its plan before it could sell shares of $1,000 or $5,000 and offer dividends.
It submitted its operating statements to the commission but the commission requested a more recent audit. That required the co-op to send its financials back to its auditors.
The commission gave the co-op a 12-month deadline to raise $500,000 and the clock started ticking when it submitted its original proposal.
By the time it received the go-ahead from the commission to launch the capital investment campaign in April 2016, the co-op had lost six months of fundraising time.
Unable to raise the money by its deadline, the co-op held an emergency meeting in September 2016. Members chose to “re-think” how the organization was structured rather than shut down. Another meeting in November that year looked at different possibilities going forward.
But Shantz said they didn’t get consistent volunteering through the rethink process. They had difficulty communicating with volunteers because there were no paid staff anymore and the website had been shut down.
The board went to the membership with a motion to dissolve.
The $177,000 raised in investments was returned. The membership fees were spent though, on things like legal, accounting, leasing a storefront at 57 Carlisle and promotional materials.
All non-confidential information related to the co-op deemed important by the board was handed to Start Me Up Niagara to be kept in guardianship in case someone else wants to take on a similar project.
“It was definitely even more ambitious than any of us were prepared to recognize,” Shantz said. “We really didn’t know how deep of a challenge we were getting into.
“I think it’s commendable that everyone really laid it all on the table, we tried to make sure that we saw it all the way to the end, and at least tried.
Maybe someday we will try it again.”