Store dedicated to NWT food opening in downtown Yellowknife

A store selling food made, grown or processed in the Northwest Territories is about to open in downtown Yellowknife.

The Territorial Agrifood Association, which represents the NWT’s food producers, is taking over the retail unit previously occupied by Bijou Boutique on 50 Avenue.

Association executive director Janet Dean said the space was “primed and ready for us to open a new chapter in what we’re offering to the NWT public.”

Dean hopes to open the store by May 15, if not earlier.

“We want it to be a one-stop shop for all the wonderful things that are made in the NWT,” Dean said, listing examples like jams, jellies, spice blends, handmade chocolates and even homemade granola.

The space will also include what Dean called the Taste the North Food Discovery Centre, an experience designed to educate people about northern food production.

“This is a chance to come in, find the stories of the food and find out what it’s like if you want to get involved in the sector,” she said.

“If you want to start your own food processing business, how do you do it? If you want to meet a food scientist, how do you know who to contact? If you want to start a farm, is there really land available? We can answer all of those questions.”

As well as providing office space for the association, which was formed in 2020, the unit will offer a meeting room that can be converted into a pop-up shop.

Dean hopes enterprises that aren’t sure whether they can sustain a full store – but want to try retail – will step forward and take it over temporarily.

“Maybe a bake shop wants to say, ‘Let’s see if I can produce cupcakes on a regular basis.’ The pop-up shop has a separate entrance, they can brand it for themselves and they can use that space as a test space,” she said.

The association is planning the return of its culinary festival this summer, while Dean harbours a dream of setting up a form of Yellowknife coffee festival in the future.

She says food production is becoming easier in the NWT, in part through the association’s advocacy and partly because she believes there is “a movement toward wanting food from the North in the North.”

“Our job is to fill the gap in making our food sector viable as an economic activity,” she said.

“Somebody should be able to start a food business and make money. Our farms should be profitable. Our small-scale food processors should be profitable. And if we can help with that, that’s kind-of what we’re there for.”