Durand Coffee Expansion

Durand Coffee is a local, independent café located in the Durand neighbourhood in Hamilton, ON. The Durand neighbourhood is the most densely populated neighbourhood in the city of Hamilton, however it lacks many of the institutional, community, and commercial assets that other neighbourhoods in the city have. Durand Coffee was conceived as a way to provide the neighbourhood and its residents with a place to build community and strengthen relationships within the neighbourhood.

Since its inception in 2016, Durand Coffee has worked tirelessly to become an inclusive and welcoming space for residents of the neighbourhood. In particular, the coffee shop has made strong partnerships with the local neighbourhood association (Durand Neighbourhood Association), which uses the coffee shop as a meeting place; the local college (Mohawk College), which uses the coffee shop as a meeting place for their international student wellness program ‘Chai Chats’; and the Hamilton Public Library, which uses the coffee shop as an auxiliary meeting space for community events.

The coronavirus pandemic has brought about new hardships and challenges for everyone,. This is especially true in Hamilton where the economic toll has created food security issues for many residents. One way that food security is playing out in many parts of the city is the emergence of food deserts, which experts explain are areas where residents have limited access to fresh and wholesome food products. This is particularly true for the Durand neighbourhood where no grocery stores exist within the boundaries of the neighbourhood. The problem has only been exacerbated by the pandemic as the elderly, at risk, and residents with mobility issues have had an even harder time access food in a safe way.

Having helped solve the issue of the need for a community space, Durand Coffee is now focused on working to help solve the problem of food deserts in the neighbourhood. More specifically, Durand Coffee is poised to expand its space and offer up more food options to the 12,000 residents in the neighbourhood, many of whom have little to no access to fresh and wholesome foods.

If we were to win the grant we would use the money to purchase fridges and other infrastructure items that would allow us to begin to bring in fresh food products for our community to access.

Thank you in advance to all of our backers and supporters through this campaign. Your support will help to truly bring about a change to people’s day to day lives!