Cafe 4 Good’s long-awaited official opening took place Friday afternoon.
Lisa Vezeau-Allen, Grocer 4 Good founder and board chair, was joined in a ribbon cutting ceremony outside the cafe at 326 Queen St. E. by Ward 2 City Coun. Luke Dufour - representing Sault Mayor Matthew Shoemaker - and Sault MPP Ross Romano.
“We’re really excited. This has been a long time coming. We applied for funding for this project in 2021 and we were awarded the funding last summer. There were lots of delays in construction so it feels really exciting to be open,” said Rachel Silva, Cafe 4 Good and Grocer 4 Good social enterprise manager.
The cafe - which opened with a soft launch three weeks ago - has attracted the downtown lunch crowd along with a more mixed demographic.
“Lots of people have come to check us out and stay for a sandwich or have an espresso,” Silva told SooToday.
Cafe 4 Good serves sandwiches, soups and salads made in house and has espresso and other specialty coffees for sale.
Its food is locally sourced, including bread from Sault bakery Breadhag and meat from City Meat Market and Bruni’s Fine Foods.
“It’s quite affordable. A bowl of soup is five dollars. We have a five-dollar grilled cheese sandwich on the menu at all times in an effort to make the space accessible to young people,” Silva said.
Silva is experienced in entrepreneurship, hospitality and marketing.
Kelly Burton, former owner of Cafe Natura, is Cafe 4 Good’s kitchen manager.
“People like it because it’s quiet. They like it because it’s kind of funky. They like the space, they like the atmosphere. We have great coffee. We have great sandwiches and we have the Panna recipes from back in the day. That’s part of it as well. The Panna sandwiches were huge and now we have those popular sandwiches. We also do catering, things like lunch trays,” Lisa Vezeau-Allen told reporters at Friday’s official opening.
The cafe is a not-for-profit that operates under the same guiding principle as Grocer 4 Good at 147 Gore St., providing goods and services to customers and valuable, much-needed training for its staff.
“We provide skills development training for young folks that may be at risk of being in the justice system, who may have already been in the justice system and for other under-employed parts of the population such as Indigenous people. It’s youth focused unlike Grocer 4 Good. The youth that we employ at Cafe 4 Good are people 16 to 25 years of age who are under-represented in the workforce," Vezeau-Allen said.
Vezeau-Allen has been the guiding force behind Grocer 4 Good and Cafe 4 Good.
Funding for Cafe 4 Good came from the federal government. The Grocer 4 Good Ability Development Program received $1.14 million in August 2023 from Public Safety Canada’s Crime Prevention Action Fund to create youth job training placements over the next five years.
“Our goal is to place and employ up to 28 youth per year at Cafe 4 Good so each of them will do a six-month period of paid employment to learn job skills,” Vezeau-Allen told SooToday.
Cafe 4 Good, currently running with six staff members, is actively recruiting.
“We connect with our prospective employees through our employment partners, Employment Solutions and the March of Dimes. Our partners mentor them through the process of crafting their resume and cover letter, tailored to their job application. They’re also supported in preparing for their interview and then we offer them six to 12-month placements in the cafe. It’s an opportunity to make meaningful change in our community. If we do our jobs right we’ll influence a whole generation of people, 28 young people a year through to 2028,” Silva said.
The cafe at 326 Queen St. E. was packed for Friday’s ribbon cutting ceremony.
“Cafe 4 Good will only be successful if people come and buy a sandwich or order a catered sandwich tray or have their coffee date with a good friend here. We need everybody in town to come and have a latte, have a sandwich, order a sandwich tray for the party, pick up some muffins for a meeting,” Silva said.
Cafe 4 Good is currently open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday.
It is hoped those hours will be extended as more employees are added.
Cafe 4 Good offers inclusive employment while sourcing its food from other local businesses, Vezeau-Allen said.
“It gives our employees the tools to go into culinary or they could be a barista at Starbucks. We have a full-on espresso machine that makes specialty coffee and we are using two homegrown female-driven businesses for our bread. We’re all about supporting local food in this space.”
Vezeau-Allen said the cafe offers inclusivity in employment.
“There is a single mother who works here that says this is the only place she can work because we understand her needs. Not everyone has a university education or a college education or finishes high school, so it's really being conscious of that and making sure everyone has opportunities. That’s why we’re here.”
