This is the moment we have all been waiting for! We’re excited to make two big announcements today:
We have a General Manager AND we have a re-launch date!
Relaunching the Store
Ordering will resume FRIDAY APRIL 28th, with deliveries the following week. As mentioned in our previous update, we will be alternating between Grey-Simcoe and Bruce Counties each week so this first week will be open to all members who live in Grey County. Folks from Bruce will follow shortly on May 5th.This will hopefully give us a bit of extra time and space to test out new routines and help new volunteers and staff get up to speed.
If your membership has expired since we closed the store in December, we will send you an email with details on how you can renew your membership for the next year. Unfortunately new memberships won’t be available during this pilot phase of our relaunch. We’ll be sure to notify everyone when we’ll be accepting new memberships to the co-op.
If you were previously receiving home delivery, you’ll be prompted to pick your closest pickup location instead when you make an order through the web store. We are currently working with a number of volunteers who are interested in helping folks that require home delivery in their areas, but it may be a week or two until we have that service up and running. If you require home delivery for accessibility reasons, please reach out so we can try and find a solution for you while we are in this pilot phase.
Welcome Steve Kenny!
Some of you may know him already as the dedicated ELGB member who ran The Bruce Trail End-to-End in 2021 to fundraise for our Zero Waste project.
“I’m very excited to join the Eat Local team. I’ve long believed that the work this organization is doing to create a better food system is important and necessary. We have a lot of work ahead of us, but the community has shown us that they want an organization like this, and are willing to support it. No doubt it has been a tough few months, but the tireless work of the board and other volunteers has created an opportunity for us to relaunch and move forward. We’ve set an audacious goal to open in two weeks, and I’m a believer in audacious goals. We are going to need help through the relaunch, so if you would like to volunteer, please reach out! And if you can’t volunteer no worries, there are many ways to support! I expect that there will be a few hiccups along the way over these first few weeks – but I know we’ll be able to work through those as a community and find a way forward that works for all of us.”
The application process was tough competition to be sure, and we want to thank all the applicants -and board volunteers who made up the hiring committee. It was not an easy task.
Still Looking for Volunteers
The next two weeks are going to be fast paced! There is much yet to be done, including figuring out how to meet demand from an operations standpoint. At least initially we will be relying on volunteers, many have come forward and we are so grateful. But, in all honesty, we still need more people! If you are interested in volunteering with ELGB and haven’t signed up yet, this is your chance.
We are looking for warehouse volunteers, community supporters and drivers, but especially folks to help pack orders in the warehouse on Wednesday afternoon/evening and Thursday during the day.
Click here to learn more about the volunteer opportunities.