A new grocery store is opening in the Junction and the shelves are being stocked with pantry staples: bread, canned goods, beans and cereal. Baskets are being filled with softball-sized grapefruits and heads of purple cauliflower. But there’s one thing missing: price tags. That’s because everything in this 1,100-square-foot market is pay-what-you-can.Customers take what they need, and give what money they can, or nothing if they cannot pay. Store owner Jagger Gordon says customers are limited to a days’ worth of food for a family so that the shop can feed as many people as possible, or people can sign up to have a box of packaged foods and produce with recipes sent to them on a biweekly basis.The food comes from food terminals, farms, restaurants, cafés, supermarkets and bakeries. None of it is expired or rotten, but companies are getting rid of it for reasons such as the produce being naturally bruised or misshapen, or there’s too much to store in warehouses. Suppliers include the Whole Foods Market in Yorkville, Fred’s Bread bakery, Moxie’s Grill and Bar on University Ave., organic growers Greenwood Farms in Whitby and the seafood company High Liner Canada.“There are big companies that have a lot of (food) stuff stored away in big warehouses and not all of it is sold,” said Gordon, a Toronto chef and founder of the Feed It Forward initiative. “There’s nothing wrong with the products we get; some stores just mandate that the food can’t sit longer for four or six months on the shelf. For example, we have pet food here that’s still six months away from the optimal freshness date.”It’s an ambitious social enterprise headed up by Gordon, who for the past four years has been working on addressing food insecurity and waste in the city.The Feed It Forward grocery store, at 3324 Dundas St. W., just east of Runnymede Rd., will have its grand opening Saturday at noon after which it w ...
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