Cape Breton food co-op aims to connect farmers, customers

A new food cooperative in Cape Breton is connecting farmers in need of a market with customers who want to buy local produce. 

The Pan Cape Breton Food Hub Co-op was developed several months ago and will run for 12 weeks as a pilot project. 

Food coordinator Alicia Lake says farmers are hopeful the project will increase their income so that farming can be more sustainable.

"It's a really exciting thing," she said. 

"I had one farmer over the weekend telling me that, 'Oh my gosh, this is so great — seeing the names of the people ordering my food coming in and knowing that these are people that are going to get to try my product that never would have otherwise.'"

Using specific computer software, food producers post what products they have available — including vegetables, meat, fish, maple syrup and honey. 

Co-op members then log on to the site and shop for their items. The requests are sent to the farmers who get everything ready for pickup. 

On Wednesdays, a trucking company collects from the 25 producers, then drops the goods off on Thursday in North Sydney and Sydney. 

At those spots, volunteers with the Food Hub separate the orders into wooden crates that were specifically built for the project by Pathways to Employment — a local non-profit that employs people living with mental illness.

Customer satisfaction

Lake said the project was capped at 50 families, although they had more on a waiting list. She says they wanted to keep the numbers manageable in the first year.

Wynn MacNeil was the first to arrive for her order. 

"Oh, it looks wonderful. Everybody is so excited and the energy around it," MacNeil said.

"I just had a peek in everyone's boxes to see what they got. It's like Christmas, it's really fun."

Sebastian Belzile also came to pick up his food. 

"We're looking forward to getting our basket today," said Belzile, adding that farmers "don't always have a chance to compete with the bigger chains, bigger industries."

"Plus they don't have pesticides. They don't have all those chemicals added and it's a way for us to eat healthy."

The project has funding from the Department of Agriculture for two years. The co-op hopes to open it to more people next year.

"Every year, grow bigger and support more producers because I think that if we can demonstrate that we have a solid market for them, then they're going to be able to produce more food," said Lake.

The food hub project also delivers to 10 restaurant partners around Cape Breton.

Lake said despite limited numbers this year, people can support the co-op. For $25, they can become a "friend" of the organization.