Impact Story: Sylvain Rollin
Wesco Food Society
Port Alberni, BC
Small Business Lending Program
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Sylvain Rollin is a man who thinks globally. He thinks about the borders that food crosses, the distances it travels to reach grocery store shelves, and the big multinational chains that disrupt a community’s food economy.
But for all his worldly contemplations, Sylvain is a man who lives his life extremely close to home. He works local, eats local, buys local, and sells local too—all very literally.
Sylvain is the founder of Wesco Food Society, a business turned non-profit in Port Alberni, British Columbia, on a mission to create a new sustainable food system rooted in local connections—from farmers and food producers to residents and neighbouring towns.
It’s an idea that was ignited during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sylvain says he’s long grappled with the waste, inefficiencies and inequity created by an ever-globalizing food system. But what finally spurred him to action was watching shelves empty as the weaknesses of Canada’s national food system were exacerbated by pandemic border closures and global supply chain breakdowns.
So in 2020, then living in Tofino, he started a small, two-seater tasting room, serving gourmet meals made from only what his backyard planters and surrounding nature could provide.
But other issues had been exacerbated, too.
“One of the reasons I left Quebec [initially] was to try and run away from a cocaine addiction,” Sylvain says. “But it followed me everywhere.” Including the eco-community where he was living and serving his fare.
Eventually, he lost that Tofino home and relocated to Port Alberni, where he found new inspiration, and support from Rise.
“I didn’t know anything about how to build a business, but Rise helped me gain the skills to write a plan,” he says. “The [Small Business Lending Program] helped me develop what I wanted to do, and I think just having a goal to achieve really helped me focus.”
Sylvain says the loan he received helped him “jumpstart the business.” He also benefited greatly from the support of his mentor, who had the right knowledge and experience to help him develop his vision and who shared her own mental health journey.
“It was a big turning point for me,” he says.
Today, Wesco Food Society operates a seasonal storefront (Wesco Foods) in Port Alberni and an e-commerce platform where residents can order local and BC-made produce, products and pre-made meals. It also hosts a weekly Farmers Market and maintains a small production kitchen Sylvain calls “the food lab.”
Each initiative reinforces the others. For example, because the farmers market is only once a week, also selling local products in-store and online creates broader accessibility. By managing distribution, Sylvain says he can save money and expand regionally, taking Port Alberni-made goods to other Vancouver Island towns and bringing back their products to sell. And in the food lab, Sylvain is innovating to reduce food waste by transforming excess or overripe produce into delicacies and preserves that dramatically extend shelf life.
“We haven’t lost an ounce of food since I opened because everything is being processed [if needed],” he says. “The more inventory and variety we can stock for customers just supports the local economy.”
With the storefront closed for winter, Wesco Food Society is focused on developing a larger location to accommodate more products and producers and, eventually, be open year-round.
Sylvain says it’s been hard work to get to where he’s at, and he has much more to achieve. But there’s no denying how far he’s come in just a few years.
“I didn’t have any self-esteem or any goals; I was just drifting. I was in a very dark place in Tofino. So, coming from the bottom of the barrel to now – a life where I want to try, I want to fight, I want to compete – it’s pretty crazy.”
And pretty inspiring.
Sylvain Rollin was our 2023 Bell Let’s Talk Start-up Award recipient.
