For many in Saskatoon’s core neighborhoods, a grocery store will be a welcome break. Some residents, like Marina Whitehead, have to travel to other parts of the city to get their groceries, like Confederation Park. That can take up to half an hour.
“I used to have to take a bus there, and then cab back. It's expensive, you know?” says Whitehead.
Now, shoppers won't have to travel nearly as far. The Good Food Junction at Station 20 West is open everyday from 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. And in a neighborhood with few options for food, many supporters say it's been a long time coming.
Jan Bigland-Pritchard has worked to get a grocery store in this neighbourhood for years. “This has been a food desert for so long round here, and who needs better nutrition than the people who are really working hard and struggling hard to make it?”
Officials say the store has been in the works since 2002, but the real work of putting food on the shelves started in the past few weeks. It took three weeks to stock the store, but it’s now full of fresh produce, meat, and bread, with a focus on local food. And as customers start to give their feedback, more specialized items will start popping up on these shelves.
“It's your neighbourhood grocery store, so the community is going to tell us what we should be carrying for them,” says Ralph Winterhalt, the store’s general manager. There's going to be an evolution in what we carry, because the community will dictate what we have.”
