Scarborough neighbourhood becomes food desert after closure of grocery stores

Scarborough Southwest residents are looking for answers after two popular grocery stores shut their doors in a matter of weeks.

A sign on the door at Tasteco Supermarket near the corner of Birchmount and Danforth Roads says the store’s lease has been terminated after they failed to pay rent for two months.

And right across the street another popular grocer, Sun Valley, permanently closed last Friday to make room for a 12-storey development.

“It’s a huge blow, to all community members, to all our residents,” said community member Monica Gutierrez. “We knew about Sun Valley because of the development. Tasteco was a big surprise, and we’re devastated. This was a really walkable community.”

“I’m not sure what our community’s going to do, it’s a food desert now,” added Misha Perozak, Chair of the Scarborough Junction Community.

A food desert is described as an urban area with little to no access to fresh and affordable food. For this area, the closest grocery stores are now two No Frills locations almost three kilometres away while the closest Metro is currently closed due to an ongoing labour dispute.

“You have to take two bus rides to get there,” shared Gutierrez. “We weren’t a food desert a few weeks ago and suddenly we are. That’s shocking.”

The closures have resulted in the immediate and unexpected loss of walkable access to fresh food in a neighbourhood that desperately needs it, according to Feed Scarborough CEO Suman Roy.

“It’s heartbreaking because this community was suffering from food insecurity and access to food for a long time anyway, and this just throws a punch at that,” said Roy.

A recent study completed by Feed Scarborough showed visits to their food banks have increased by 112 per cent in the last year.

“There’s a lot of people in our neighbourhood that walk here, elderly, people renting in basements. We have many new Canadians in this area. They’re just getting established and don’t have cars, that relied on this grocery store and we’re losing it, it’s gone,” added Perozak.

Community advocates tell CityNews the new development where Sun Valley currently resides has proposed just a fraction of the retail space that is currently available.

“That’s basically a nail salon, that’s not acceptable,” said Perozak. “They need to put back enough retail and grocery stores in developments now.”

Guiterrez believes this is part of the ongoing issue of developments going up in Scarborough with “no foresight on what the community really needs.

“We want to be walkable and complete communities … we’re welcoming development we’re not a nimbyist community, we’re happy for folks to come and hoping to have more neighbours but also those neighbours are going to want a walkable community.”

Currently, there is no city councillor for the ward either. Gary Crawford resigned from the position last month to run for the Progressive Conservatives in a byelection in Scarborough-Guildwood, where he lost to Liberal candidate Andrea Hazell in the July 27 vote.