Small prairie towns are slowly fading from the map, but residents of Lake Lenore, Sask., are making sure their town endures.
When the town of 325 people nearly lost its only grocery store three years ago, resident Beryl Bauer and a team of volunteers banded together to create a grocery co-op.
Bauer was recently recognized for his role in getting the co-op off the ground at the annual Saskatchewan Co-operative Merit Awards ceremony Oct.18. He won the Saskat-chewan Co-operative Enterprise Award, which honors new initiatives.
The family-owned store in Lake Lenore was supposed to close Dec.1, 1996, because no private buyers had stepped forward to take it over. Knowing the town would suffer if residents could not buy groceries locally, Bauer organized a group of supporters, which decided to create a community grocery co-operative. On Jan. 20, 1997, the Lake Lenore Grocery Co-op was born.
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Lake Lenore has a strong history of community co-ops, including farm supply and seed cleaning co-ops and a group that built a new town hall.
A group of five volunteers, led by Bauer, negotiated an agreement with the former owners of the store.
To raise $130,000 needed to buy the building and fixtures, volunteers asked families in Lake Lenore and surrounding area for $500 loans.
“People knew it might become more of a donation rather than a loan, but they gave,” Bauer said.
In a few weeks, residents came up with $80,000. Community service groups and town council added money, while the local credit union arranged the mortgage.
Bauer said 60 people helped paint shelves, lay new flooring and scrub every corner of the store.
“We had a little guy about three years old helping to unpack the shelves, and I’m sure there were people as old as 75 who pitched in,” he said.
“It was a real community effort.”
The store opened on March 15, 1997, with 250 members. It became an official Federated Co-op member a year later and is now a central part of the community.
“It’s not a big business, but it’s holding its own.”
Without the co-op, Bauer said the town might not have survived.
“We’d have been toast. I think a lot of seniors would have left and our property values would have dropped …. We’re just trying to hang on to everything we have.”
The co-op plans to repay the $500 loans, he said, but it needs to upgrade equipment and keep making a profit before that can happen.
Bauer is president of the grocery co-op and sits on the board of directors for the town agro and auditorium co-ops. He said co-operation is what keeps his community alive.
“It’s either that or the town goes.”
