
Reaching for diasporic offerings
30 June 2025By Mahlet Cuff
Growing up in Winnipeg, there were grocery spots my parents took me where I felt right at home. These grocery stores are the ones that are locally owned, and filled with aisles of various spices, smells, and colours that replicate different variations of the Black/African/Caribbean diaspora. The store that I grew up with, and still frequent, is Dinos––right in the heart of downtown that began as a small store on Notre Dame Ave, and has since grown to move just a couple blocks over on Isabel. I remember as a child, this was the place that me, my mom, and siblings went to on the weekends to get special treats and stock up on foods that we could not get at the big box grocery stores. Not being able to understand the significance of such cultural food access as a child, this bi-weekly event was just another aspect of daily life for an immigrant family in a Canadian prairie city.
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