Parkdale is losing a neighbourhood staple that provides healthy, organic food options to the community and tonight it’s asking residents to help shape its future.

The West End Food Co-op(WEFC), a not-for-profit cooperative,  will have to move out of its space at 1229 Queen St. W. in the lower level of the Parkdale-Queen West Community Health Centre come September 2018.

The WEFC is a four-pronged organization that runs the Sorauren Farmers' Market; the retail store; a commercial kitchen that hosts workshops and the Co-Op Cred program, which employs marginalized members of the community and pays them with credits to buy healthy food from the co-op.

It’s  “very important” for the WEFC to stay in the west-end, said executive director Amanda LeClair, but the cost to run the co-op in its full-form may be unaffordable. This is forcing the co-op’s board of directors to re-think its services and could mean it may go back to its roots and operate as a commercial kitchen and farmers market, or simply operate as a grocery store and nothing more.

At this time, community feedback is what the co-op is looking for to help make an informed decision.  So far it’s hosted one visioning session with members only and on Oct. 2, it will host another with the broader community. Tonight’s session is being held at the Parkdale Library from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m.

“We need to know what it should look like, so that’s why we’re reaching out to find out what’s important to our membership and the community,”  LeClair explained to CTV News Toronto.

“We want to find out if we’re not able to find a spot, what do you want to see? What’s the most important aspect of the food co-op to you?”

The Parkdale-Queen West Community Health Centre, plans to expand its services and needs the space currently occupied by the co-op for additional programming.  The board of directors at the WEFC was told about their eviction last September and LeClair has been working since then to find out what this means for the local co-op.

“A lot of stuff has been going on behind the scenes to find out what our options and opportunities are,” LeClair said.

The executive director of the health centre, Angela Robertson, admits not extending the WEFC’s  lease was a “hard decision to make.”  Not only because they’ve been tenants for the past five years, but because the health centre is facing its own sustainability challenges as well.

Its satellite location on Roncesvalles Avenue rents two offices for roughly $90,000 a year, which is a price it’s struggling to afford. It has chosen to downsize and move some of its services offered to its Queen Street West location.

“Part of the long-term planning is to reduce that sort of cost and re-direct it into programming and use the space that we actually have,” said Robertson.

“We also have a local food program that we’re operating out of our space here every Wednesday, by the Dale Ministries that has put some pressure on needing additional space for expanded programing.”

Part of that expansion includes the space the WEFC occupies.

Currently, the co-op is paying “well below market rent,” which is just under $30,000 a year thanks to its agreement with the health centre, said LeClair.

But she’s aware the organization won’t be as lucky in its search for an affordable space in the area.

“With what we’re paying for rent right now, similar sized places that would also need a lot of renovations would be at least two or three times the price we’re paying now,” LeClair said.

“It’s so far beyond what is possible for us to do at this point.”

Although the future is uncertain for the WEFC, in terms of what it could look like and where it will move to, LeClair does see this as an opportunity for the organization to refocus.

“Parkdale isn’t what it was five years ago and going through this is going to make us a more sustainable organization,” added LeClair.

“Whatever we come up with is going to be different but it’s going to be better.”