Latest news with #FoodBasics
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Sault police seek suspect in grocery store theft spree
Sault police and Crime Stoppers ask for help identifying a suspect in a series of thefts from Food Basics in mid-July. Sault police and Crime Stoppers ask for help identifying a suspect in a series of thefts from Food Basics in mid-July. Sault police are investigating incidents of theft at a local grocery store last month. According to police, an unidentified man was observed stealing items on multiple days in mid-July, leaving the Food Basics without paying for the merchandise. Algoma Crime Stoppers - Crime of the Week - July Food Basic thefts The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District are asking for help identifying a suspect in a series of thefts from Food Basics in mid-July. (Supplied/Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District) During the most recent incident, the suspect was confronted about the theft before making his escape. 'The suspect abandoned approximately $400 worth of merchandise before fleeing,' officials with Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District said in a news release. Portions of the incidents were captured by video surveillance cameras and the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Crime Stoppers are requesting the public's assistance with identifying the suspect. Algoma Crime Stoppers - Crime of the Week - July Food Basic thefts The Sault Ste. Marie Police Service and Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District are asking for help identifying a suspect in a series of thefts from Food Basics in mid-July. (Supplied/Crime Stoppers of Sault Ste. Marie & Algoma District) 'If you recognize the individual involved or information, call Crime Stoppers,' said Brian Lester, a director for local Crime Stoppers, in a related online video. As such, anyone with information about the incidents or the identity of the suspect is asked to contact Sault police directly or Crime Stoppers anonymously. 'Your tip can make a difference,' added Lester.
Cision Canada
01-08-2025
- Business
- Cision Canada
Too Good To Go Launches at Food Basics to help Ontarians save money and reduce food waste
All Food Basics locations across Ontario are now featured on the Too Good To Go app TORONTO, Aug. 1, 2025 /CNW/ -- Food Basics is furthering its commitment to offer customers "always more for less" through a new partnership with Too Good To Go, the world's largest marketplace for surplus food. As of today, all 148 Food Basics locations across Ontario are live on the Too Good To Go app, giving shoppers a new, convenient way to access fresh groceries at deep discounts, while helping to tackle food waste. Building on the success of partnerships with Metro Ontario, Metro Quebec, and Super C, Food Basics becomes the latest banner in the Metro Inc. family to join the global movement to reduce food waste. Since the first Metro Ontario stores launched on the platform in November 2022, the grocer has helped save more than 1 million meals from going to waste. Starting today, consumers will have the option of picking from four categories of Surprise Bags. Varieties of the following will be sold at a significant discount: Meat and Seafood (at $9.99, $30 value) Bakery (at $5.99, $18 value) Dairy (at $5.99, $18 value) Deli (at $5.99, $18 in value "At Food Basics, we are committed to offering value to our customers every day, without compromising on quality. By offering these assortments at low prices, we are giving a second chance to products that are still perfectly good to eat, while meeting the needs of our customers who are looking for economical and responsible options," said Hardeep Kharaud, Senior Vice President, Food Basics. By offering consumers a new way to purchase perishable foods, Food Basics is helping to reduce food waste at the community level while making everyday savings more accessible to all. "At Too Good To Go, we believe that good food should be saved, not wasted. We're honoured to partner with a leading grocer who shares that passion," said Chris MacAulay, VP North America, Too Good To Go. "Together, we're making it simple, affordable, and delicious to fight food waste. This partnership continues to show that doing good is as easy as picking up your groceries." With more than 16,000 food-selling partners in Canada, Too Good To Go has helped rescue over 10 million meals from waste since its Canadian launch in July 2021 -preventing more than 25 million kilograms of CO₂e from entering the atmosphere. Too Good To Go continues to expand throughout the country by adding more partners and bag categories every day. Food selling businesses are encouraged to join by visiting and selecting "Business Sign-Up." The Too Good To Go app is available for free on the Apple App Store for iOS and Google Play for Android. To find out more about Too Good To Go and to find tips and tricks to waste less, follow the Instagram page About Food Basics For 30 years, Food Basics has been helping customers save money on their grocery needs by providing Always More for Less. Food Basics operates on three guiding principles: Always Fresh, Always in Stock and Always at Great Prices. Food Basics is the discount banner of Metro Ontario Inc. and currently operates 148 stores across Ontario. About Too Good To Go Too Good To G o is a global social impact company that connects users with partners to rescue unsold food and stop it from going to waste. With 100 million registered users and 175,000 active partners across 19 countries, Too Good To Go operates the world's largest marketplace for surplus food. Since its launch in 2016, Too Good To Go has helped to save over 400 million meals from going to waste, the equivalent to 1.1 million tonnes of CO2e avoided. According to Project Drawdown (2020), reducing food waste is the number one action you can take to help tackle climate change, by limiting the temperature rise to just 2˚C by 2100. For more information see
CTV News
29-07-2025
- Business
- CTV News
How unsold food is making its way to hungry Londoners
A skid of food at Food Basics being loaded onto a London Food Bank refrigerator truck, seen in London, Ont. on July 29, 2025. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London) At a time of unprecedented demand at the London Food Bank, a food recovery program at several local grocery stores is preventing tonnes of nutritious meals from going to waste. 'The One More Bite program, it makes me proud to be a part of it,' explained Chris Coombs, manager of the Food Basics at 1200 Commissioners Road. 'We have a lot of people in the community that are struggling right now.' Nine of the Metro and Food Basics stores in London participate in the food recovery program. As a product's 'best before' date approaches, its price is often discounted by the store. If it hasn't sold by the night of the 'best before' date, the unsold meat, dairy, bakery products, and prepared meals are loaded onto skids and frozen to await collection by the London Food Bank. 'We focus mainly on healthy, nutritious products,' added Coombs. 'And it feels good to be able to give back (and) prevent it from going to waste.' One More Bite London Food Bank contributions Food Basics Manager Chris Coombs explains how food is selected for donation to the London Food Bank, seen in London, Ont. on July 29, 2025. (Daryl Newcombe/CTV News London) On Tuesday, the store loaded two skids of products onto a refrigerator truck from the London Food Bank. 'When you look at what's come in over those past number of years from One More Bite, it's been hundreds and hundreds of tonnes worth of food,' said Jane Roy of the London Food Bank. Province-wide last year, One More Bite saved 2.6 million kilograms of food, which is equal to about 5.2 million meals provided by food banks. Roy said the London Food Bank has been involved in the program since 2019 and received steady growth in both the volume and variety of food received. It's become a vital part of meeting unprecedented demand. 'We're serving double what we did before the pandemic. It's 5,800 families a month, or about 17,000 individuals a month, getting help from the food bank. So, this food we're going through really quickly,' Roy explained. Coombs described it as a team effort. 'I'm extremely proud of my staff,' he said. 'We're one of the highest contributing stores for Food Basics. My team is very engaged in it!' There are 247 Metro and Food Basics stores participate in the One More Bite program across Ontario.
Hamilton Spectator
07-07-2025
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
Niagara farmers pitted against grocery stores when it comes to pricing locally-grown fruit and vegetables
It has been an uneasy relationship between large grocery stores and Niagara farmers. While those such as Dan DeVries — who with his family, including brother Mark, operate Fenwick-based DeVries Fruit Farm — appreciate grocery stores selling local fruits and vegetables, they also must endure the competitive pricing they offer to customers. 'We need to have support from these big retailers because on an individual basis, we can't market this whole crop,' said DeVries. 'Retailers are good supporters of Ontario fruit when it is in season. But it is unfortunately quite often that local fruit becomes a gimmick to get people into the store.' During the popular strawberry season, DeVries Fruit Farm was offering strawberries in its retail store for $6.50 a pint or $12 for two. But Zehrs in St. Catharines was selling 340 grams of Canada greenhouse-grown strawberries for $5, while Food Basics was selling 454 grams of strawberries from California for $3.99. 'It's a market strategy (for large grocery stores),' said DeVries. 'They offer those prices as a loss-leader, and they make it up with customers buying other things.' Since the COVID-19 pandemic, DeVries said, he hasn't raised prices on many of the farm's fruits and vegetables. 'We have absorbed the costs.' Yet, he is forced to watch as his other expenses rise, such as for cardboard, gas, water, fertilizer and other items that go into getting fresh fruit to market. 'We are here to keep the prices fair and consistent,' said DeVries, whose operation was started in 1984 by his father as a hobby farm. Grocery stores have volume capacity to dictate a price, which can 'squeeze' farmers, he said. He said the family farm has always had a small retail outlet, but during the pandemic it expanded its store to offer other food-related items such as eggs and other locally-produced products, and added a bakery. A marketing bonus for local farmers has been the Canada and Ontario buy-local campaigns in the wake of the United States imposing tariffs on various Canadian products. And while DeVries welcomes the initiative, he said it's ironic it takes a pandemic and a trade dispute with the U.S., the nation's largest trading partner, to convince Canadians to buy local goods. 'It's essential to have locally-produced goods. The quality is better, and you support local businesses,' said DeVries. Across Ontario, buying local supports 871,000 jobs and contributes $51 billion to the provincial economy, more than the auto sector, said provincial officials. There are about 48,000 Ontario farms and 5,200 food processors and manufacturers. Findings of a survey by Dalhousie University's agri-food analytics lab, released in April, showed 60.8 per cent of Canadians are open to paying five to 10 per cent more for Canadian-grown produce, dairy or meat over U.S. alternatives. Sylvain Charlebois, the lab's senior director, said in an interview with Niagara This Week that large grocery stores know how to appeal to people's budgets. 'It helps bring people into their store and some grocers know that,' he said. 'To them (fruit on sale) is a loss-leader. Independent grocers, farmers market stands, they can't do that. Really, it's crazy. It's an absolute game.' Still, said Charlebois, as the Dalhousie study shows, Canadians want to buy locally-sourced products and are willing to pay for it. He has seen farmers sell strawberries and cherries at some Ontario farmers markets at competitive prices with grocery stores selling U.S. product. But really, he said, selling strawberries at $2.99 a pint or $3.99 for a 340-gram package does not cover the cost of producing the item. 'We are being spoiled,' he said. DeVries agreed locally-sourced fruits and vegetables found in grocery stores are not the real cost of what a farm invests in the item. Stephanie Bonk, communications manager for Metro and its discount Food Basics stores, said the company is committed to selling locally-sourced fruits and vegetables . She said during the last week of June, Metro had Ontario greenhouse-grown frooties strawberries (tiny) in a 340-gram container at $3.99, Ontario greenhouse-grown strawberries in a 340-gram container at $4.99 and field strawberries from Vineland at $3.99. 'We sell locally-sourced fruits and vegetables as much as possible,' Bonk said in an interview. 'It is something we have been doing for a while. It is not a new strategy.' Tashani Jaja, communications adviser for Sobeys, said in an email the grocery store is 'committed to prioritizing local strawberries and supporting our local growers.' 'However, during certain periods, demand can exceed the local supply,' forcing Sobeys to sell U.S. strawberries, Jaja said. Last week, Sobeys in St. Catharines was offering 454 grams of strawberries at $4.99, but it didn't state online whether the berries were from Ontario or the U.S. Loblaw, which owns Zehrs, did not respond to a request for comment about its marketing of locally-sourced fruits and vegetables. A Walmart official said a response would be provided in a few days, but none was received. DeVries said his 40-hectare family farm grows a variety of tree fruit, including apples, peaches, plums, pears, strawberries and cherries, that helps him avoid market downturns. 'For some of the big growers who are completely dependent on the chain store system, it can be tough,' he said. As a lineup of people now grows at the farm's retail checkout stations, DeVries said he promotes the buy-local campaign, as does the Ontario government. 'The more we can support each other, the better,' said DeVries. 'As farmers, we need the community's support. I want to be here as a family business and support my community when the tough times come along.' Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
Ottawa Citizen
04-07-2025
- Business
- Ottawa Citizen
Today's letters: Carney shouldn't have caved on digital services tax
Carney shouldn't have played possum Article content Article content I voted Liberal for the first time because Mark Carney said that he would stand up to Donald Trump. Instead, he has laid down and played possum. Article content This will not do, Mark. You cannot negotiate with a bully; strong action is required. Bring back the tax you just rescinded and double the amount to be paid. Ask Premier Doug Ford to pull the plug on hydro to the neighouring states. Article content Article content Detroit and other cities are the main auto manufacturers in the States purchasing our hydro; without that they cannot manufacture anything. Thousands may be laid off, and companies closed, just as has happened to Canada. Article content We have to show this bully that he cannot run the world like he did in his television show as he seems to think. He is not King of the World who can just ruin a lot of smaller countries with his bullying tactics. He has to be stopped and brought to reason. Act now and save Canada and all the other countries affected by his actions. Article content A BIG Thank You!! Article content While shopping at Food Basics in the Herongate Mall last Tuesday, I had a 'moment.' My wife paid for the groceries and, as we were placing our groceries in the car, I noticed my wallet was missing. We checked all through the car: no wallet. So, with heavy hearts, we went back into the store while considering all the work replacing those items in my wallet would require. Article content Article content As my wife walked the aisles, I approached the lady at customer service to see if anyone had turned one in. I really didn't have much hope. However, she said someone had done so. She asked my name and for a description of the wallet. These I provided. She produced my wallet.
