Our August 21, 2025 Grand Opening

Photo by Julia DeFrank

Thanks to the 70 plus community members, friends, supporters, and members of the press who attended our grand opening! We were honored to hear from our NYS Senator, Thomas O'Mara, our NYS Assemblyman Phil Palmesano, and Dundee Village Deputy Mayor, Judy Duquette, who gave Mayor Fred Cratsley's speech in his absence. The Mayor's speech was very motivating and inspiring, and he has given us permission to post it here:

Welcome everyone. I want to thank everyone for spending some of your time today for this Grand Opening Celebration. A special thank you for joining us to Senator Tom O'Mara and Assemblyman Phil Palmesano. We know how busy you are. Tom and Phil's support to our Village has been pivotal to building a stong and sustainable community. So I personally thank you both.

To all of the volunteers of Dundee Fresh, Thank you! Your vision and persistence to make this happen is amazing. This is a testament to your dedication to never give up and believe in yourselves. You have proven to others that if you have an idea, come up with a plan, get advice from others, and don't give up, you can achieve great things. The old saying goes "Rome wasn't built in a day," however, it was built with one person here, one person there, one idea here, one idea there, with one stone at a time working together and not giving up. You can accomplish anything with the right attitude and effort. That is what this group has done so far.

I believe you're not done. I'm sure you have more to accomplish. But I also know this group of amazing individuals will accomplish their goals. That goal of continually providing healthy, fresh and affordable food to our communithy for years to come. With all the great things you have done here at Dundee Fresh, I have a challenge though. I challenge all of our community, surrounding communities, and anyone that hears about Dundee Fresh, to come to Dundee, shop here, buy local and eat here. Come and enjoy their cafe, try the different varieties of coffees, the pastries, their breakfast and lunch menu. Eat here or take food home for dinner. We tend to forget when we are out shopping how important it is to shop local. When you shop local, over 60 cents of every dollar stays local. With chain stores, on average, less than 30 cents of every dollar stays local. So double of that stays directly here.

Lastly, to our community, don't just drive by and say "Oh look, another store," say to yourself "let's stop and find out what I can buy." You will not realize how important it is to stop, stop and shop, until they are not here.

Then we will be back to saying the same thing we said a month ago "Man, I wish we had somewhere to buy a few fresh groceries in Dundee."