Marty Donkervoort

Carrot Common home to The Big Carrot health food store on Danforth Avenue in Toronto is celebrating its 25 th. anniversary.  In 1987, I was assisted The Big Carrot to find a new larger location for their popular store. I introduced Mary Lou Morgan of the Big Carrot to David Walsh who I had met at a CED workshop some years earlier. It gave birth to Carrot Common, a two building two story complex with 21,000 sq. ft. retail store space and 10,000 sq.ft of office space for health care professionals. The Big Carrot is the anchor store in the Common and  has expanded over the past 25 years to take on an even larger presence.

The Carrot Common complex has been an inspiration to various organizations over the years including Neechi Foods Co-op Ltd. in Winnipeg who are about to open Neechi Common on Main St in Winnipeg’s North End later this summer. The 50,000 sq.ft complex will be home to community businesses promoting healthy foods and lifestyles.

Both Neechi Foods and The Big Carrot are worker co-operatives where the workers are the owners of the enterprise. Both are social enterprises with an environmental consciousness providing healthy food and lifestyles as well as employment for their workers.

The  Social Enterprise Centre had its official opening celebration on May 26, 2012. The building at 765 Main Street in Winnipeg’s North End was purchased some months ago by a consortium of three social enterprises (BUILD, Manitoba Green Retrofit and Pollock’s Hardware Co-op). It has undergone significant renovations and is now home to six community organizations in addition to the three social enterprises. The event attended by several hundred people included tours around the building and an opportunity to make a contribution to a mosaic to be prominently displayed in the building. The Centre is the latest development in Winnipeg’s social enterprise sector. 

The Social Enterprise Course developed for the Business Faculty at the University of Winnipeg had a wonderful inauguration this past winter term.  The course was well received by the thirty mainly third and fourth year business students.  The final term essays were most interesting and display an understanding and appreciation for the role of social enterprises in the economy. I enjoyed teaching this past term and am looking forward to teaching a similar course in U of W’s Urban and Inner City Program on Selkirk Ave. campus this spring semester.

I developed this new course and started teaching it on January 10, 2012.  32 mostly 3rd year business students are enrolled in the 13 week course. With reading week on the horizon, we reached the midway point this past week. There seems to be lots of interest in the social enterprise model. In the first half of the course, I invited two guest speakers, Shaun Loney, Executive Director of B.U.I.L.D. and Richard Doyle, President and CEO of ImagineAbility Inc. (Formerly Versatech Inc.). Both speakers were excellent and the students appreciated having these social entrepreneurs speak to them about their enterprises and their experience. I have already scheduled several guest speakers including Larry Morrissette (OPK) and Cheryl Crowe (ACU) for the second half of the term.

On February 2, I made a presentation on my experience as a Director of Business Development at the North End Community Renewal Corporation in 1999-2001. Neighbourhoods Alive organized the two day meeting. Although dated, my experience during those early days of community renewal were still relevant. Twelve years later I was able to show some of the impacts of the Renewal’s Corp efforts more than a decade ago.