WHITEHALL — The Healthy Roots health food store in Whitehall made another move in June, moving from its downtown Colby Street location a couple of blocks down Mears Avenue, at the former Edward Jones building. The store, which was also previously located in the Colby Street business plaza just outside the city limits, has wasted little time taking advantage of its more spacious new digs, hosting its first Makers Market Wednesday from 3-7 p.m.
The plan is to continue hosting the weekly markets, which function as miniature farmer's markets, each Wednesday through October, weather permitting. A handful of vendors were on site Wednesday, and several more are slated to be there next week, along with, potentially, food and beverage trucks.
Meredith Kuiper, who now co-owns Healthy Roots with Tianna Dusseljee, said the idea for the Makers Markets came from customers who were either unable to purchase enough produce from the farmer's markets to get through a whole week or who couldn't make it to them due to their Saturday dates.
"It's just a way to support local vendors and local farmers so that they can move their produce so it's not just sitting, and give people an option for organic, clean produce in the middle of the week, not just on the weekends," Kuiper said. "We have a parking lot now, so we can do that."
The building was vacated when Edward Jones took up residence in the business area of the new Harwood Flats building in early 2025 and had not been used since. Healthy Roots hadn't actively sought a move, but with the parking crunch at its downtown location, the move a couple of blocks down proved to be the right one. Kuiper said the company has a great relationship with Brad VanBergen, the landlord of the property, who has helped get things rolling.
"It's such a good layout for us," Kuiper said. "Would we love to grow and get bigger and be like a mini Whole Foods someday? Sure. Might we (someday) need a bigger footprint? I don't know. I have no idea, but for right now, this is exactly what we need."
Dusseljee recently joined Kuiper as a co-owner of Healthy Roots due to the two having a similar vision of distributing health food to the area while also having, Dusseljee said, "complementary personalities."
"We're both moms," Dusseljee said. "We are both passionate about helping people be the best versions of themselves, which means different things for different people. Being able to give the knowledge, share the knowledge, listen to people, that's what we were after, so we decided to join forces."
The layout of the store itself isn't that much different than in its prior locations, but with a conference room that Healthy Roots plans to rework into a classroom to help launch health classes, the natural light from the plentiful windows in the building, and the former bank drive-through that the store plans to eventually utilize to offer food and beverages, it's been a boost.
The Makers Markets are another way Kuiper and Dusseljee are aiming to connect health food distributors with their customers.
"It has to be people over dollars," Kuiper said. "There's not an equation in which a profit is more important than somebody that walks through our door that needs us. We have to show up, and we have to be walking alongside our community. And as long as we can do that well, everything else will sort itself out."
