GUYSBOROUGH — Rising demand for affordable food is pushing Square Roots, a volunteer-run food security program that sells low-cost produce in and around Guysborough, to expand its reach, with this year’s Christmas giveaway marking the first full-scale distribution in Canso.
The annual Christmas effort on Dec. 20 and 21 provided more than 5,600 pounds of free fresh fruits and vegetables in Guysborough and Canso, representing the program’s most extensive local holiday distribution since it launched just over a year ago, according to community manager Rhonda Procure.
“This was our largest undertaking as of yet,” Procure said in an email to The Journal.
The produce was divided between the two communities, with just more than 200 bags distributed at each location. Additional food items, including stuffing mix, cranberry sauce, rolls and pies, were also made available, along with grocery store gift cards for some recipients.
Procure said the decision to include Canso as a full distribution site for the first time was driven by growing demand.
“We’ve just gotten a lot of requests from Canso, from people in Canso, and they want to have the program there,” she said in a phone interview.
Established in 2016 by a group of Saint Mary’s University business students interested in social enterprises, Square Roots operates as a food security initiative that sources produce from suppliers in the Annapolis Valley and sells it at low cost through local distributions organized by volunteer community managers.
Outside of the holidays, Procure said the organization operates on a bi-weekly schedule in Guysborough, with distributions held every second Saturday. Customers place orders in advance through an online system, which helps manage supply, and any surplus produce is donated locally, including to food banks and community organizations in Guysborough.
“It’s all produce that gets shipped to us, and we sell it at basically the lowest cost possible,” she said. “The 10-pound bags that we do up, we sell for $10. That’s your potatoes, your carrots, your onions.”
With early locations in Halifax and New Glasgow, Square Roots began to expand beyond its city environs a few years ago. “They put feelers out on Facebook, different community pages, and buy-and-sell pages,” Procure said, explaining how she became involved.
“I saw one in a community group in Guysborough. I just thought, okay, ‘let’s look into this a bit further.’ And it seemed like it could be something that this community really needed.”
That was “a year and two weeks ago.” Since then, she said, that need has expanded in the local area, both geographically and demographically. “It’s young families, couples, seniors – it’s kind of across the board.”
In Guysborough, for example, demand often reflects the day-to-day challenges of affordability and access, with parents relying on the program through partnerships with organizations such as Kids First, which purchases produce to stock a community fridge.
Meanwhile, older folks and people living alone make regular use of the program often preferring smaller quantities. “They don’t want to go out and buy a big 10-pound bag of potatoes,” Procure said. “They just want to buy three or four to get them through a week or so.”
In Canso – where surplus produce from the Guysborough holiday giveaway was delivered last Christmas – demand is similar but appears more broadly urgent.
“They don’t have a food bank anymore,” Procure said. “There’s been a lot of job loss there, too. They do come up to Guysborough now, but that’s not always easy for people. It definitely feels like there was more of a need in Canso than Guysborough.”
That may be a sign of the times. Food security concerns are emerging elsewhere in the region as well, Procure said. “We’ve had a lot of requests from … Country Harbour as well,” she noted, adding that expanding further would depend on volunteer capacity and available support.
For now, she said, Square Roots plans to continue operating through the winter “to the best of our ability,” weather permitting. “There have been talks on how we could reach more people. We will continue to work through the details over the next couple months.”
The year-round program’s goal, she said, has always been the same – “to get fresh affordable produce to as many people as possible. We don’t require people to show us any information or give any details about themselves. We want people to come in and just have a little dignity.”
