The Pulse: July 18, 2023

After four years as a pickup-only business, Bagel Bar has opened a storefront in south Edmonton.

Bagel Bar initially operated out of the kitchen at the now-closed DeRose Fine Foods and then moved production into Vienna Bakery. Owner Gemma Davies said she had always wanted to open a storefront, but having launched her business just before the pandemic in 2019, the timing wasn't quite right.

"When things started to take off, COVID hit, and we were in a contactless world," said Davies. "The online contactless world worked for us. With the regular shutdowns, the storefront would have been too risky."

As the world started to open up again, Davies started to look into potential spaces, and one came up at 4823 99 Street NW that she could not refuse.

"It was a connection," said Davies. "Drift Food Truck was not using the storefront space at their production kitchen. It is 200 square feet, which is perfect because I already have production space at Vienna. We're not baking at the storefront and will just shift our inventory."

The storefront opened on July 15 and will operate Wednesdays to Saturdays. The relationship with Drift means Bagel Bar will be selling Drift's popular pantry items on its behalf, including its sauces and spice mix. In the future, Bagel Bar will be stocking Drift's frozen products as well.

A self-described home cook and home baker, Davies was attempting to create a great bagel because she couldn't find one in Edmonton that she enjoyed. But after seeing that her friends and family were "going crazy" over them, she decided to pursue bagels as a business.

"We specialize in a New York-style bagel," said Davies. "We pride ourselves in authentic preparation. It's somewhere between 24 and 48 hours to make a bagel. The hugest part is that we hand-roll the bagels, and we boil our bagels to give the crust a lovely chewy texture and keep the crumb nice and soft."

• Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he is "really, really concerned about the escalation of violence" in Edmonton, even with several investments in safety approved by city council in recent years. "Despite all those investments we are making … we are not seeing significant improvement that we need to see," Sohi said, again suggesting the federal and provincial governments need to increase funding to address root causes.
• Criminologist Temitope Oriola of the University of Alberta said recent messaging from the Edmonton Police Service is contributing to fear and paranoia about safety in Edmonton, especially downtown. "It felt like Edmontonians were being told to be afraid," Oriola said.
• The Drive Happiness Seniors Association will receive $563,537 in federal funding to expand volunteer-assisted transportation for seniors and increase access to in-home supports. "We are tremendously excited to see the impact our work will have on the lives of seniors and their ability to age in place," said Drive Happiness executive director Liza Bouchard. The funding is part of $1.68 million announced for Alberta through the Age Well at Home initiative.
• Coun. Andrew Knack would like to see privately owned e-scooters allowed on city streets alongside commercial options like those from Bird and Lime. "We can pretend it's not happening or, you know, we can recognize that these options are becoming more popular and people are already doing it," he said. Calgary city council plans to propose a resolution at the upcoming Alberta Municipalities convention to ask the province for amendments to the Traffic Safety Act to regulate private scooter use. Knack said Edmonton city council would support the resolution.
• The intersection at 127 Street and 126 Avenue in north Edmonton has accounted for more than 11% of all automated traffic enforcement tickets issued since January 2019, according to city data. Speeding violations made up the majority of the 156,565 tickets issued. Automated enforcement sites in Edmonton recorded 1.28 million violations between 2019 and the end of 2022.
• The University of Alberta has launched a new interdisciplinary research centre focused on water-related topics thanks to $1.4 million in seed funding from EPCOR. The new Water Research Centre will be led by director Mohamed Gamal El-Din, a professor in the Faculty of Engineering. "It's not just about engineering and science. It also includes sociology, rural economy, Indigenous communities, and anything related to water across the entire university to cover a wide variety of water-related problems," Gamal El-Din said.
• Alberta NDP MLA Janis Irwin spoke with The Tyee about being visible at a time of rising hate and violence toward the LGBTQ2S+ community. "There are queer and trans people everywhere. We're not going away," Irwin said. "We're your neighbours, your friends, your community members. Until all of us are safe, none of us are safe."
• Environment Canada issued a rainfall warning on July 17, saying more than 50 mm of rain could fall before tapering off in the afternoon on July 18.

Fuge Sausage, Drift Food Truck and Eatery, and Not Your Babas have partnered to create a new way for charities to raise funds.

Local Eats Fundraising aims to streamline the process for groups looking to raise money by equipping them to sell locally made items like sauces, perogies, or sausage to their friends and family. Instead of having to deal with bulk orders of food and hefty markups, fundraisers sell standard-size packs of food at retail prices and get 25% of the proceeds.

"A lot of food-based fundraisers, you're buying like a case of 48, when you buy something, and so you have to buy a huge amount, which makes it a little more difficult," said Gavin Fedorak, co-owner of Fuge Sausage. "So our whole goal with this was to sell standard retail products in standard retail pack sizes."

The idea for the venture began when one of the other partners in the initiative approached Fedorak for help with a school fundraiser. Positive feedback from the school made them consider keeping the partnership going.

Local Eats Fundraising also has a community partner program that works with larger charity organizations within the city. Consumers can buy food through Local Eats and 25% of the order will go to a selected charity. Previous community partners include the Mill Woods Seniors Association and Win4Skin, which raises money for cancer research.

While they don't have large-scale plans for it, Fedorak hopes to establish Local Eats Fundraising as a reliable partner for charities in the Edmonton area.

"Ideally we'd like to build it into a well-known entity in the Edmonton region," he told Taproot. "For us, this is 'Let's build a locally focused vehicle that works with a bunch of teams and organizations and groups and charities to raise money every year.'"

Photo: (From left) Mark Dowhaniuk of Not Your Babas, Gavin Fedorak of Fuge Sausage, and Nevin and Kara Fenske of Drift Food Truck and Eatery created Local Eats Fundraising to help groups like sports teams and charities to raise money. (Supplied)