Industry icon Deane Parkes died of natural causes on June 10 at his home in Two Mile, BC. Since his passing, the outpouring of love and gratitude expressed for Deane has been overwhelming.

Most businesses don’t use the word “love” in their employment strategy—but the owners of Homesteader Health Foods do. And it’s working. They’ve been in business for 37 years, operating five stores in northern Alberta and British Columbia. Being in remote, smaller urban centres—Prince George, Fort St. John, and Quesnel, BC and Grande Prairie, AB—presents multiple challenges for the retailer.

‍The alive Executive Summit once again attracted leading figures in Canada’s natural health industry by offering a slate of inspiring presentations and essential business insights.

In most ways, Wellness Market in Windsor, ON is very much like a traditional health food store, offering vitamins, supplements, and some dry grocery items. However, over the eight years she’s owned her business, Kaila Seguin has shown a propensity for doing things that will give her store a little inspirational kick in the pants and offer something new to her customer base.

A couple years ago, with the 50^th anniversary of his natural health food store on the horizon, Dellard Labrosse was starting to feel the weight of the five decades he had spent building and maintaining his business. But he’s not just the founder of Georgian Bay Whole Foods in Parry Sound, ON—Dellard also operated a natural food warehouse and ran a delivery service that supplied dozens of health food stores over Central Ontario.

Sometimes, you just know when it is time.

On a warm sunny morning in late September, the newly designed Vita Health Fresh Market in Osborne Village welcomed customers with a week-long celebration. Shoppers enjoyed deals, demos, and events held to celebrate the location’s renovation. It’s welcome timing for the Vita Health’s marketing manager, Kelly Lyons, who notes that the store’s makeover mirrors the area’s transformation.

 The whimsical dreams of a child are often fleeting, innocent thoughts that eventually fade—but that wasn’t the case for Kim. The impact of visiting Westmount stayed with her. In 2006, after various other pursuits, Kim landed where she was likely always meant to be: as the founder of her own health food store.

Not everyone in our industry knew Brenda Parkes. She was one of those people who didn’t crave attention, who worked quietly behind the scenes, and who worked best in one-on-one situations to make everyone around her better. She just wanted to help improve the lives of those she worked with or came in touch with. For this reason, I’d say Brenda was very much the living embodiment of the spirit of the natural health industry.

Over the years, Montreal has been the source of many interesting store features in CNHR. Its early health food stores and the pioneers who opened them have a deep and rich history in the city.

 During a recent visit to “the City of Saints,” CNHR conducted one of its classic “pop-in” tours, getting out on the streets and visiting a few stores and a head office location.

Nicole Rumley had wanted to move her health food store for a long time, but she could not find the right spot.

 Until the day she found the right spot.

Last year, when Vicky Hachey decided to launch her own podcast Talk to Vicky, RHN: A Total Approach to Wellness, she saw it as the next logical step in her continuing journey in a career that spans almost three decades.

This is a big anniversary year for Lifestyle Markets in Victoria, BC. It was 30 years ago—in 1995—when Lifestyle Markets first opened on Victoria’s Douglas Street with the goal to offer natural and organic produce and groceries, supplements, vitamins, and bodycare products.

While attending the Health First Network (HFN) annual general meeting (AGM) in Montréal, Quebec, this past spring, I made it a point to try and connect with people I’d never met before. It was very encouraging to meet some first-time AGM retailer attendees, folks who in many cases are brand new to our industry.

After a lengthy career in leading and managing long-term care and retirement residences in Ontario, Steven Golden made his initial venture into the natural health retailing industry in 2022, when he purchased L’Amie de la santé in Hawkesbury, Ontario.