Juice Amour, a local juice bar that sells smoothies, acai bowls, and other healthy raw organic foods, is part of Sustainable Kitchen, a vegan, vegetarian, and gluten-free food delivery service based in Lincoln, Vermont. Acquired by on March 6th. The current location on Exchange Street in Middlebury will be Sustainable Kitchen's first in-person location. The company currently only provides catering, participates in farmers markets and wholesales products.
Kate Halladay and Richard Causey, who have a daughter named Flora, will continue the family tradition with this space. Sheri Bedard founded Juice Amour in 2015 with his father, David Bedard.
“We are excited to embark on this journey with Juice Amour and the Middlebury community,” Kate Halladay said in a March 7 press release. “We are dedicated to delivering new and exciting products to our customers while maintaining the high standards set by Sheri, David and the team.”
Sheri Bedard shared her thoughts on the acquisition in an interview with The Campus. After Bedard has been an owner for about 10 years, he said he realized it was time to take the business to the next level. While she's familiar with the marketing side of owning a business, she doesn't know much about food production.
“I run another business in marketing, teach classes at Champlain College, and am very busy. Juice Amour has always been a passion project,” Bedard said. “When we opened, there was no other place where you could get raw juices and raw food. We wanted to create a place like that for our community.”
Before the acquisition, Juice Amour had some sustainable kitchen products in its stores, which were well-received, Bedard said.
Her sister, Shauna Sherwin, is a manager at Juice Amour and helped bring the two businesses together. Sustainable Kitchen was looking for an in-person center for their business, and taking over Juice Amour was the obvious next step in their growth.
Bedard expressed excitement about the acquisition by Sustainable Kitchen, saying, “We know they're working on the same thing as us.”
She hopes the new owners will be able to offer Juice Amour supporters more specialty foods.
According to a press release, Halladay and Cozy will maintain their current menus and expand their offerings of breakfast and lunch options. Juice Amour's hours will be extended accordingly, and under new ownership it will serve pump coffee from nearby Little Seed Coffee Roasters. The new owners also plan to create a small store in front of the store with food and snacks from other local businesses they partner with.
Bedard values healthy eating and clean food, and Juice Amour has always strived to sell delicious fruits and vegetables at affordable prices, she said.
“The biggest challenge is cost,” Bedard said. “It feels like there are a lot of subsidies for meat and vegetables and very little for fruits and vegetables.”
Bedard says having cooks on-site allows Sustainable Kitchen to buy food in bulk and cook larger batches, lowering prices and making food more accessible to communities. He said he was looking forward to it. This is what she has always aimed for.
Eloise McFarlane ’24.5 has worked at Juice Amour on and off for three years, making juices, smoothies, and other food products. She said her best part about working at Juice Amour is her co-workers.
“They have allowed me to get involved in the community in a meaningful and fun way,” McFarlane wrote in a message to The Campus. She also enjoys creating her own special concoctions with her colleagues, such as her version of the Crunchwrap, which includes cheese, avocado, mushrooms, sautéed vegetables, homemade tortilla chips, and Juice Amour's secret sauce. I'm here.
She also loves the connections Juice Amour has with the university and community.
“We see a lot of athletes come in before and after training. Kids often work there, too. One student group even filmed part of a short film in our space,” MacFarlane said. he wrote.
Ms. McFarlane was informed of the acquisition, but did not expect it to significantly change her work experience. “This is primarily a typical juice or smoothie with an added food element,” she said.
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Juice Amour will hold an official launch party under new ownership in early April. Both the former and new owners feel optimistic about Juice Amour's acquisition.
“After this, we will be their best customer. But we are no longer the owners,” Bedard said. “They plan to keep everything that makes Juice Amour and add to it.”
Julia Pepper ’24 (she/her) is a senior local editor.
She previously served as local editor. She is majoring in Psychology and minoring in French. This spring, she studied abroad in Paris. She spent her summer interning at her home in New York City, putting her cold-calling skills as a journalist to use in her internship and doing advocacy work for the elderly. In her free time, she enjoys reading and petting cats.
