Innovation

The Pack: Locally Made Goods wants to provide the information and tools needed to sustain a healthy lifestyle. Eating clean can not only make you feel better, have more energy, sustain a healthy bodyweight, but taste good! The holistic nutritionist shares tricks and tips for holistic remedies that can cure a cold or help you sleep better. The classes take place at the store, after hours.

Goal 2 - Zero Hunger -The food that The Pack does not sell during their hours of operation is not put to waste. Rather than just throwing away the foods that were not sold The Pack takes this food and donates it to homeless shelters in the area. This practice ensures that nothing produced is put to waste, while helping people who are in need at the same time.

Goal 3 - Good Health and Well Being - The Pack is all about the promotion of well-being and good health. This is seen through a means of different eating techniques that their customers can acquire. The Pack uses clean, organic, local foods to show their customers how food they eat can affect their overall health while promoting a balanced healthy lifestyle.

Goal 12 - Responsible production and consumption - The Pack is committed to using responsible production and consumption techniques, which allow them to remain as sustainable as possible. They only use a variety of natural whole foods within the recipes they cook. On top of this they are committed to the environment by strictly using biodegradable take out containers, glass straws to reduce their pollution levels, as well as utilization of eco-friendly cleaners.

Goal 17 - Partnerships - The Pack has paired up with many other small businesses in their community to help each other promote the love they share for health and wellness. With each partnership they acquire The Pack and other businesses will grow faster than ever before, while still sharing with the community what they stand for.

Inspiration

The owner has always viewed a healthy lifestyle as a main priority in her own personal life. "It was running through her head for what seemed like years".

"Steph was so passionate about making healthy food taste good and wanted to share that with others". She decided to take a risk even though she had no idea what she was doing. At the beginning it was only our food, but over time people kept reaching out wanting to join our team and support health and wellness."

The east end of Barrie not only has limited take out restaurants but no healthy options. The rent in the quiet east end is much cheaper than downtown Barrie so it seemed like the perfect fit. Many small businesses aren't able to promote their amazing products due to lack of funds when first starting up, The Pack supports these businesses in hopes to help promote their products. Together, the team at The Pack: Locally Made Goods can share their knowledge with people in the Barrie community on the importance of a healthy lifestyle and promote whole food options.

Overall impact

The overall impact the Pack has had is quite impressive. They have established a healthy, sustainable way of creating delicious food, while keeping in mind the needs of their valued customers. The use of eco-friendly products and containers helps reduce waste in the environment. A lot of people now a days are very conscience about the impact they have on the planet, and this is definitely shown in the increase in popularity the Pack is receiving.

The workshop classes they hold have had a drastic increase in admiration, and receive many regulars who stop in on a weekly basis to buy take out. As the word of mouth is spreading more and more people are entering the realm of living with sustainable tendencies while eating the food that they want to eat. The Pack is giving people diverse options in which they have never seen before and is also teaching them step by step how accomplish these goals.

Business benefit

The Pack: Locally Made Goods has gone from one employee each day to three. Profit has increased each year. More and more small businesses related to healthy food options and health and wellness groups have reached out to join their team.

With the positive growth they’ve acquired The Pack has started a catering service. This service is meant to provide clean, healthy food for events and large parties. They have also started creating healthy cakes for special occasions. Having multiple requests for their clean, healthy and delicious foods the Pack has been able to create these initiatives and as a result are earning more than they ever had in the past.

With the success that they have had, The Pack has been able to create longer hours of operation, which will convenience many of their customers, and giving them even more opportunity to create profits.

Social and environmental benefit

Being sustainable and eco-friendly is an extremely popular topic of interest in today's society. Many individuals today are searching for alternative businesses, which support the environment as well as the local food economy. Being sustainable is a part of their overall mission. The Pack shows they are environmentally friendly and sustainable by using all natural cleaners in their shop, bio degradable take out containers, glass straws, glass juice containers, the no use meat products, and solely using organic produce.

With the use of healthy foods that taste good as well as educating people through the use of workshops on the importance of healthy eating and the benefits it brings, The Pack is able to significantly make a difference in the way it’s customers are choosing to eat as well as showing them how they can accomplish it in a sustainable ways. With their usage of environmentally friendly containers and other products it is clear that this company is attempting to strive towards keeping a clean healthy planet for generations of people to enjoy. As they grow bigger and bigger as a company, more and more people will be able to see how to they can live their lives with sustainability kept in mind.

Interview

Nikki Blackall, Supervisor