Jump to Journey: 2018 – 2019 – 2020
January 2021
- Added new retail grocery – Mustard Seed Co+op (Hamilton)
December 2020
- Added new retail grocery – Summerhill Market, Rosedale location 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 based grocery stores – Fresh from the Farm and Urban Bulk
- 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
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- 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
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September
- Launched new website
- Re-introduced Beer Baguettes
- Ran Sucessful 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 spentgrains 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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