The hands picking your produce are the hands at your door.
Brian Vanderstelt runs one route from Innisfil and Barrie up through Oro-Medonte, Orillia, Coldwater, Midland, Tay Township, Penetanguishene, Elmvale, and out to Christian Island — picking the produce by hand, packing the truck himself, and knocking on the door at the end. The way grocery used to feel.
Our approach
Fresh groceries, delivered with care.
No app to download. No third-party drivers. Just one grocer, picking the same way you would, driving the same route every week.
Quality
Brian walks the produce aisle the way you would — turning over the avocados, checking the bottoms of the berries. Produce picked up twice a week from the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto, and from local farmers like Barrie Hill Farms when they're in season.
Convenience
Two delivery days a week. Tuesday for the first half of the week, Friday for the rest. Standing orders are welcome — no need to re-send your list every week.
Reliability
Same route, same truck, same face at the door. Brian writes your order on the same notepad he's used since he started, and drives it himself.
Why Brian started this
It started with a phone call to Christian Island.
Before March 2020
A career change in the works.
Brian Vanderstelt — a Beausoleil First Nation member with a cottage on Christian Island — had been planning a career change. The slow-burn version of the idea was opening a fruit and vegetable market on the island, where his mom lives full-time.
March 2020 · Lockdown
The ferry hours got cut.
Chief Guy Monague and council limited residents to one mainland trip per week. Doctor's appointment or grocery shop — pick one. The seniors who'd put up bulk food in the fall were staring at freezers full of bricks with nothing fresh.
A phone call
Chief and council said yes.
Brian called his mom to check in, then called Chief and council and asked for permission to deliver fresh fruit and vegetables to full-time residents on a weekly basis as an emergency service. Permission came back. Brian's Food Baskets was born.
Spring 2020 · Friday ferries
The first runs across Cedar Point.
Truck stocked at the Ontario Food Terminal in Toronto twice a week — and from local farmers like Barrie Hill Farms when they were in season — then rolling onto the Cedar Point ferry. The Beausoleil Family Health Centre commissioned 30 food boxes per delivery for residents with diabetes and young families — a contract that's been part of the route ever since.
2020 onward · Word of mouth
The mainland route filled in.
Barrie families, Innisfil and Oro-Medonte households along Lake Simcoe, Orillia retirees, Coldwater and Tay Township properties along the bay, Midland and Penetanguishene seniors, Elmvale neighbours along the back roads — they heard about the island deliveries and asked to be on the route too. Tuesday became the second delivery day. Two full loops a week.
Today
Same truck, same days, same hands.
Two delivery days, ten towns and everywhere in between, one grocer. No app. No third-party drivers. No substitutions you didn't ask for. Just one grocer, picking the same way you would, driving the same loop every week — and quietly partnering with schools, healthcare organizations, and non-profits running healthy-living programs along the way.
"We're surrounded by farmers, so we tried to keep it local. We were able to offer pints of strawberries at the same price as if you went to Barrie Hill Farms — we weren't charging a delivery fee and it's a fresher product."
Kristin Vanderstelt · Simcoe.com, December 2020
By the numbers
Five years on, the loop holds.
Ready for groceries that come with a name attached?
Tell Brian what you'd like in your basket and where you live. He'll call back the same day and have your first delivery on the next run.