Jump to Journey: 2018 – 2019 – 2020
May 2021
- Hi Orillia! We’re coming this spring, thanks to Amy and Don of The Rind & Truckle, your new artisinal cheese and goods shop
- Fans of MooFree stay tuned. You can soon order Spent Goods via their online store
April 2021
- Enjoy a soft pretzel with your next brew from The Gaslight (Junction Triangle)
- Say hello to Tyler & Barbara when you pick up Spent Goods at Safehouse Organic Grocer, our latest retailer in Toronto’s Roncy neigbourhood
March 2021
- Signed up Loco Fields who deliver to Stratford, St Mary’s, London, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge & Toronto — and everything in between. Southwest Ontario, we’ve got you covered!
- Added Erin and her health & wellness store – Coco Market (Rosedale subway)
- Welcomed Kevin & Iyana of KASPACE Café (Leslieville) to Spent Goods family. Bread available to take home and used in their awesome menu
- Paused deliveries to Annex Market, while they restructure
- Launched The Tulip Variety Store and Pingle’s Farm Market as ‘pickup points’ for online orders
February 2021
- Participated on a panel for Drawdown Toronto’s Food Waste Challenge.
- Watch this video on how businesses Bruized, Baremarket and Spent Goods deal with leftovers and our suggestions on how individuals can also participate.
- Paused deliveries to Zero Waste Bulk in Waterloo, for the winter
- Added new retail grocery – Summerhill Market – Annex (West Toronto)
- Added new retail & online marketplace – Scarborough Co-op Market (Scarborough)
- Added new retail grocery – Pingle’s Farm Market (Hampton, ON)
- Launched Mustard Seed Co+op and Jinglepear Deli as ‘pickup points’ for online orders
- Launched our first chatbot to provide instant answers to frequently asked questions. We’d love your feedback!
January 2021
- Mustard Seed Co+op (Hamilton) joined the Spent Goods family.
- Added new retail grocery – The Tulip Variety Store (West Toronto). Welcome Dayna.
- Ran our 2nd promotion with Mama Earth Organics, sold 1500 fresh beer pretzels in 1 week
- Part of Belgian|Canadian Business Chamber’s 2021 Virtual Beer Tasting swag box
- Submitted proposal to Impact Canada’s Food waste commercialization
- Carved out time as a team from day to day to re-visit our sustainable packaging strategy
- Drum roll please! Check out our latest Social Impact summary.
December 2020
- Added new retail grocery – Summerhill Market – Rosedale offering Fresh bread 7 days a week
- One of 4 Sensational Snacks, according to LCBO’s Food & Drink Holiday guide
November
- Added new online grocery – 100km Foods
- After summer run, we’re pausing the Sandwich buns and Burger Buns till Spring 2021 to work on something new. However if keen to wholesale prior, let us know!
- Add 2 new east end grocery stores – Fresh from the Farm (East York) and Urban Bulk (Leslieville)
- Launched our first par baked demi baguette for the holidays available via Mama Earth Organics
- Participated in FoodShare’s holiday box alongside Drake Commissary and other local suppliers
- Ran our first flyer promotion with Sweet Potato
- Kept Marcella, Roma, Jonathan, Colton, and Yukari very busy making over 1000 Butter Crackers pouches to fulfill holiday gift boxes
- Introduced silica packets to ensure freshness of our Butter Crackers – Thanks Tim!
- Spent Goods Case Study presented virtually at Zero Waste Conference, Vancouver
October
- Added east end vegan grocery & deli – Jinglepear Deli
- Participated in Nickelbrook Brewery‘s and Newmarket craft beer festival mystery box promotion
- Our burger buns will be part of Lady Hummingbird’s Culinary Arts (every Sat at Wychwood Barns Farmer’s Market)
- Part of Toronto Food Film Festival‘s launch box
September
- Launched new website
- Re-introduced Beer Baguettes
- Ran successful 1 week pretzel blitz via Mama Earth Organics
- 2nd Spent Goods Party
- Hired Sophi Robertson to lead Market Research & Sales efforts
- Back at Unboxed Market and Zerowaste Bulk (Yeah!!)
August
- Recipient of a grant from Canadian Agricultural Partnership Agri-Food Open for E-Business
- Working on new website!
- New Products – English Muffins, Spent Rye
- Added new restaurant – Round the Horn (Roncesvalles)
- Added new downtown grocery store – Fresh & Wild
As of July 31 2020, we’ve seen a bump due to the pandemic and doubled the amount of spent grains we diverted compared to all of 2019 (and 4 months to go in 2020!)
The total GHG #offset is the equivalent of driving a car from Toronto to Alaska.
Our calculations are based only on spent grain that would have been discarded, doesn’t include inputs such as transporting waste to landfills etc.
We’re grateful for your support!
June – July
- We piloted with Country Boys Produce, Otto’s Bierhalle, Toronto Market Co, Bare Market and Zero Waste Bulk (our first Kitchener-Waterloo pop location)
- New Product released: Pretzel Bagels
- Started at Evergreen, High Park and Leslieville Farmer’s markets who also are using localline’s pre-ordering system
- Hired Food Sales Product Representative with help from the Canada Summer job works program that provides paid experience for people between 16-30
- Recipient of a grant from Investment Readiness program
May
- Food that Beets – Maddelena and Turk, farmers based out of King City, Ontario offering 100% organic produce grown in Ontario.
- Vegan Meal Kit Company, Sorry I’ve Got Plants, included our pretzel bagels and sourdough.
- Canary & Fox, a retail store in the Junction joined us.
- Delivery to Fiesta Farms was paused.
- And we’re back at Mama Earth Organics with our new Vegan Burger Bun!
- Sydney, one of the first people to work for Spent Goods, decided to move on. We will miss you
- We placed our first order for 50,000 bags!
April
- Due to COVID-19, we saw an increase in new and existing businesses pivoting to offer more local food options and we couldn’t be more delighted that they included Spent Goods in their stores:
- Farmer Dave who was a regular at Leslieville, Junction Market launched Virtual Farmer’s Market.
- Farm to Office food delivery company GoJava pivoted to offer next day delivery of home grocery.
- Fresh Fields, a retail store focusing on organic goods, run by Ladan and Blake joined our family.
- Grapewine Crush – they pair wine delivery with our pretzels!
- With COVID and food safety in mind, we transitioned from paper to plastic bag based packaging. We still need to address the single use nature of plastic bags and welcome any cost effective ideas.
March
COVID-19 put Ontario under state of emergency.
Spent Goods deemed an essential service given we sell to grocery stores. While restaurants like Prohibition Gastrohouse had to close, seeing a ton of food businesses pivot to providing food essentials via online delivery platforms.
Spent Goods, Henderson and Drake Commissary partnership featured on Weather Network (video)!
Mentioned in Blog TO, as 1 of 15 businesses offering bread and delivery options in Toronto.
February
- New location: Annex Market.
- New Products: Added dairy based English muffns, baguettes, sandwich/ burger buns and sliders
January
- New location: The Big Carrot’s Beach.
- Beer pretzel promotion with Mama Earth Organics.
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