Grocer 4 Good ready to provide free healthy meal kits

Volunteers and staff with Grocer 4 Good are gearing up for their first ‘Saturday Well Market’ this weekend.

Running on Saturdays from April 30 until the end of August, Grocer 4 Good will be putting together and distributing free healthy meal kits at their Gore Street location.

Meal kits are primarily vegetarian, and include the full recipe, instructions, and ingredients.

To help kick-off the initiative this Saturday, Harvest Algoma will also be on-site selling some of their baked bread, cookies, and other treats. 

This week’s meal kits feature a vegetarian sloppy joe using buns purchased and made from Harvest Algoma.

Grocer 4 Good founder and volunteer Lisa Vezeau-Allen is excited to help make healthy foods more accessible to the community through this new initiative. 

“The goal is to broaden people’s culinary horizons with low cost, healthy meals,” she says. “We try to use as many local ingredients as possible.”

Earlier this month, the Grocer 4 Good Ability Development Program announced $24,760 in funding for the Saturday Well Market through the second round of the Canada Healthy Communities Initiative.

The organization has done several successful pilots in preparation for the program, distributing 389 meals last December alone. 

Vezeau-Allen is looking forward to teaming up with Harvest Algoma on Saturday to help launch the four-month project.

“It was a perfect combo of what they’re doing and what we’re doing,” she says. “In the future, we plan on using as much of what they’re using as we can.”

Healthy meal kits must be ordered in advance. To register, email [email protected] or call 705-255-0445 and specify the date.

Grocer 4 Good staff will be on-site from noon to 4 p.m. at 147 Gore Street this Saturday.