Michael Gennings
CREEMORE - The Creemore 100 Mile Store was presented a
Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence in Guelph on Monday.
Fareed Amin, deputy minister of Agriculture, Food and Rural
Affairs, presented a regional level award to store founders Jackie Durnford and
Sandra Lackie.
“I congratulate these local winners on their achievements,”
Guelph MPP Liz Sandals said in a news release. “Their hard work and innovative
ideas help make our agri-food sector and rural communities stronger.”
The store was recognized for the financing model that allowed
it to get off the ground.
“A new model of micro-financing has produced a store that carries
local food products, giving Simcoe County farmers a market, consumers fresh
local groceries and the 47 shareholders a thriving business,” the province said
in a news release. “The way it works is that each Class A share is worth $1,000
and offers a return on investment in five years, although some have already
realized their returns since the store began.”
Shareholders are local women, or women with ties to the local
community.
Durnford said the award was presented on the store’s fourth
anniversary.
“It was fantastic,” she said. “We were really thrilled. It’s
sort of a vote of confidence from your peers.”
The business had to apply for the award late last year.
“You make an application, state your innovation and explain
it. And then the application goes to a review panel of your peers and out of
all the applications they decide who will get an award,” Durnford explained.
More than 200 award applications were submitted this year.
Durnford said they had no clue how their application would be
received. She said winning is a real honour.
The store learned in June, in a confidential letter, that its
application was successful.
The awards were handed out at the Royal Canadian Legion in
Guelph. The province said the ceremony recognized 11 regional winners.
A total of 50 regional awards are being handed out across
Ontario this summer. From these, five will be chosen and awarded with the
Premier’s Award, a Minister’s Award and three Leaders in Innovation Awards at
the Premier’s Summit on Agri-Food in October.
The province says the agri-food sector is one of Ontario’s
leading industries, contributing more than $33-billion to the economy each
year.
Durnford noted that since the Creemore 100 Mile Store opened
it’s seen tremendous growth.
“Business has certainly grown and changed since we started,”
she said. “We’re in the same space but we’re probably carrying almost 1,000
products now. We probably started off with 50 or 100.”
Durnford and Lackie work in the store – located on Mill
Street in village – along with three part-time staff.
Why has the business been so successful? Durnford is quick to
respond.
“We came at it from a food end. It was all about bringing the
best taste to the table,” she said.
0 comments:
Post a Comment