Dear Members, Thank you for your support of Karma throughout this challenging 13 months. The latest news regarding COVID-19 is not encouraging, and we appreciate your adherence to the measures we have put in place to ensure the safety of staff, members, visitors, and suppliers. After careful consideration, we have decided to continue to suspend member labour in the store, with the exception of set up and closing, and working members will not be charged member hours in April. We will as...

By the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation. Worker co-operatives are businesses that are owned and democratically controlled by the members. The main purpose of a worker co-operative is to provide employment for its members through operating an enterprise that follows the Co-operative Principles and Values. When new employees join the business, after a successful probationary period they are encouraged to apply for membership. The worker co-op is, in principle, designed to provide ben...

by Rosalind Ashe Karma-member and baker extraordinaire, Inayat Singh, hosted December 2020’s highly popular Holiday Baking Webinar. She’s back! A home baker and avid cookbook collector, Inayat has taken numerous courses on baking as part of her travels and formal baking classes. On the weekends, she spends time in the kitchen, working on her passion for pastry…and other delicious offerings that are part of her side-hustle: Prickly Pear Bakehouse. Prickly Pear Bakehouse will be hosting ...

As I am sure many of you are, I am so grateful for March’s arrival! The sun is getting stronger and things are warming up. There’s a lot to look forward to right now! With the warmer weather, going outside gets easier (as a mother of a 6 year old, this is something I am very much looking forward to!), it also signals the imminent arrival of some of Ontario’s earliest crops and means we will soon see the faces of some of our farmers once again. It’s hard to believe ...

by Arthur Jacobs A Bundle-Buggy (BB) is not to be confused witha grocery store shopping cart, or the virtual on-line check-out version.Our Buggy has reached the age of recognition!BB has turned 26-years old.The 1995 date-code,stamped on the cardboard boxlining the inside of its basket,tells me so.BB has completed hundreds of trips to Karma Co-op.More than 500 Kms. – A Toronto to Montreal distance.Return loads total; 18,000 kgs.A tractor-trailer’s load equivalence.BB is low mai...

by Jennifer Knoch Karma shoppers take so much care in buying their food, but there are great ways to extend that care, and your food’s life, once you get home. Not only does that save money and resources, but cracking down on our food waste is a top climate change intervention according to international scientists at Drawdown. So let’s review a few ways to keep that food fresh longer. Fruit and veg Don’t wash food until you’re ready to eat it and avoid storing fruit or veg wet.Loose...

While we carry animal products, Karma Co-op has lots of options if you’re a Toronto-based vegan, vegetarian or someone looking to reduce meat and dairy in favour of a more plant-based diet. Want to know what it’s like to shop vegan at Karma? We’ve put together the below grocery guide. Essentials for a vegan or plant-based grocery list Karma carries all the basics for a plant-based and vegan shopping list: Seasonal, fresh fruits and vegetables with an e...

In celebration of Black Histories/Futures Month, we’d like to showcase some of our Black suppliers. Karma would be nothing without the products on our shelves and the amazing suppliers behind them. We want to increase our products sourced from BIPOC suppliers. This is an area we need to improve on if our products are to reflect the diversity of our community. If there are BIPOC makers/shakers/business owners you think Karma should be partnering with, please connect us! It’s Sou...

by Nathalie Remond, on behalf of the Food Issues Committee. Like most fruit and vegetables, the peel is the most nutritious part of an orange. The way we traditionally peel it results in discarding nutrients with many health benefits. Numerous delicious recipes wisely use grated orange peels for flavour in marmalades, cakes and pies. A recent study has found that the white part of the skin, often called pith, also has health benefits. It has fourteen times more antioxidants than the j...