Eat Local working to minimize closure impact on customers, farmers

The manager of Eat Local Sudbury says staff are working to minimize the impact of the upcoming closure of the business.

Last week, the co-op voted to close on March 1. The board and staff said the organization had been operating at a loss and recommended closing.

Co-op manager Erica Lagios says there's a number of reasons why Eat Local is closing.

"We started 10 years ago and there really wasn't anything like this in this city," she said.

"We were the only place if you were looking for something a bit different than what was offered at the traditional grocery store, we were it. But in the past 10 years, we've seen a real rise in the local food movement."

She says that's led to more local food options to be available at different stores in the city.

Despite the decision to close, Lagios says the local food movement is still going strong in Sudbury.

"One of the things that we're going to be focusing on in the next few weeks is how do we connect our members and customers and people who enjoyed all of those great products, to the food that they've come to enjoy," she said.

"So we're going to be working with our farmers, putting together contact lists and information on where people can get the products."

Lagios says they worked to close the business at a particular time to try and lessen the impact on farmers and producers.

"That was one of the reasons why we decided to move quickly with this decision at this time so that we weren't making any commitments that we couldn't keep," she said.

"It is going to be an adjustment and we are going to try and help as much as possible."

But having access to the store is something customer Jennifer Mancini says she'll miss.

"I hope that with the closure of it people realize how much we've lost and something comes sooner than later in the future," she said.