A new ‘local food hub’ will soon be opening at the location of the old Mustard Seed Co-op in downtown Hamilton.
Dundurn Market has announced it will be moving into the 460 York Blvd. building, which will serve as its operations base for the market’s popular food delivery program.
It comes just weeks after co-founder Justin Abbiss and his team opened the Ottawa Market in the city’s east end.
Abbiss said some of the founders of the Mustard Seed approached them shortly after the co-op closed its doors in late August.
“We had a look at it and it actually fits quite well with what we’re doing, and particularly with our home delivery program that is really quite busy,” said Abbiss.
Dundurn Market serves between 200 and 400 people every week, and Abbiss said the operation has been encroaching upon the actual market space at the Dundurn location.
“We’re really growing out of the location at Dundurn Market, in terms of space-to-warehouse product, room to pack orders, refrigerated space for all the produce coming in the door … so the back of the Mustard Seed actually has a fairly big warehousing space, as well as walk-in refrigerators, and all that’s going to allow us to keep growing that side of the business and operate more efficiently.”
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While the new hub will be operated by Dundurn Market, Abbiss said Hamiltonians who enjoyed the selection of locally sourced products at the Mustard Seed will continue to see the same products — and more.
“We already work with a lot of the same vendors and the great thing about this is we’re going to be able to work with two or three times more vendors because we’ll just have that additional space that we don’t have at Dundurn Market or Ottawa Market.”
In a release, Lynda Dykstra said she and her fellow Mustard Seed founders are “thrilled to support this renewed investment in our local food system”.
“Dundurn Market’s expansion is a major boost for Hamilton,” added Emma Cubitt, another founder of the Mustard Seed. “It’s building the integrated links we need to connect from farm-gate to consumers.
“This new food hub is key to these networks.”
The market on York Boulevard is expected to open within a few weeks.
As for what it will be called, Abbiss isn’t quite ready to reveal that information.
“I don’t think we’re quite ready to let that one out of the bag yet, but it definitely will be something unique to the neighborhood,” Abbiss said.
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