Shira McDermott

Shira McDermott is a Vancouver-based entrepreneur with a focus on food developed from almost 25 years of working in the grocery and foodservice industries. She is the co-founder of GRAIN (Vancouver Magazine’s 2016 Supplier of the Year), a dry goods company focused on supplying restaurants and consumers with premium, 100% traceable dry goods grown by Canadian farmers. She is also the creator of the award winning, vegetarian food blog In Pursuit Of More, which was named ‘Best Food Blog’ by Taste Canada in 2016, and runs Metier Agency, an independent marketing agency that provides communications strategies for consumer brands. She is also a wife and mother of two.

Describe your Lifestyle.

My family and I live an active lifestyle focused on taking advantage of all that beautiful Vancouver has to offer. We are an omnivorous group, with our home meals being primarily vegetarian (my husband is not a vegetarian). We do our best to source our food responsibly, and adhere to a less is more philosophy. Quality is always better than quantity.

What does Spud mean to you- what do you love about Spud?
Since beginning with Spud, I have found that meal planning and even blog planning has become much easier. While I am a self confessed grocery shopping junkie, it has been amazing to plan out my meals during a few moments of quiet time, and make the selections I need outside of what can be tremendously hectic days out in the field. The quality and selection of the products are awesome and the customer service is outstanding.

Top 3 Favourite Go To’s @ Spud
Every week I receive a few different local cheeses, Avalon milk, and whatever veggies I am not getting in my local CSA. I am always trolling for new products, and the local product assortment in general is amazing. It’s a tough category and Spud is committed to supporting local companies – and they have a customer base that supports that too! It’s awesome.

What is your favourite indulgence?

Always chocolate. I really can’t go long without it.

Define Community. What is your desire for ours?
I love the sharing amongst influencers, dieticians, and bloggers in the food space. It’s such an amazing, creative group and I feel that inspiring one another and those in our own communities is such a wonderful outcome of bringing like-minded people together.

What do you stand for? What / Who do you support?

Less is more in all things. Regardless of how you choose to eat, or what your lifestyle looks like, the majority of those living in ‘have’ societies could make a big impact just by evaluating our needs vs. wants, and how our over-consumption of all things is negatively affecting the health of our planet, and ultimately our future.

Declare: Your Personal Manifesto
Have less. Do more. Be more.