Community-focused café to bring local flavour and partnerships to Dufferin Oaks

June 4, 2026 · 0 Comments

Written By JOSHUA DRAKES

LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER

A new community-focused café and bakery is preparing to open inside Dufferin Oaks in Shelburne, aiming to blend scratch-made food with support for local makers and social enterprises.

Destined to Bake Café will operate out of the long-vacant on-site café space, offering residents, staff and the wider public a quiet, light-filled spot for coffee, baked goods and light meals.

Owner Destinie Gonyea’s goal is twofold: to build a sustainable baking business rooted in her culinary training while creating a welcoming hub where community members, local vendors and long-term care residents can connect.

“I feel like it’s a good opportunity for me to work alongside the community,” she said. “If I could create a space to bring the community and everyone together, like families, residents, people from just the area, locals, even maybe people passing by, I feel it would be great not just for me, but for the town.”

The café’s menu is designed to be simple but thoughtful, featuring hot or cold coffees and teas, fresh lemonade, five-bean vegetable chilli, weekly artisanal sandwiches and soups, grilled cheese made with locally sourced bread, and an assortment of muffins, scones, cookies, loaves, and single-serve cakes.

Soups will be supplied by The Raw Carrot, a nonprofit social enterprise that creates employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

Partnerships with local businesses are also central to the concept. Vendors such as Polar Press Designs and RöKIN Creative will offer products on consignment, while local entrepreneurs will have space to display business cards.

The goal is to give residents greater exposure to the wider community, help small businesses gain visibility, and position the café as a gathering place in a growing town where many newcomers are still discovering what exists beyond the main street.

Gonyea’s journey to opening the café has been gradual and hands-on.

She first explored culinary arts in high school, motivated by a desire to move beyond the boxed and processed meals she grew up with. Restaurant co-op placements led to several years in professional kitchens, including helping open a Moxie’s location in Mississauga.

Graduating at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic made finding work difficult, but positions at a co-operative bakery and later as a pastry chef at Greystones in Orangeville helped refine her skills. A subsequent role at Pine River Institute, a treatment centre for youth struggling with addiction and mental health challenges, deepened her focus on nutrition, practical cooking skills and community support, reinforcing her belief that food can be both nourishing and empowering.

A chance stop at Cole Country Market was the turning point. Gonyea was introduced to a family-run, community-minded business that became an important mentor as she learned the realities of operating her own venture.

“This company… Cole Country Market, they’re family owned, and they’re really family oriented, but community focused as well,” Gonyea said. “They realized I had a really strong skill set that they could utilize in growing their company, but in return they also helped me along the way as well, by being able to give me a lot of information for running my own business, like more hands on, more behind-the-books things.”

That support, combined with experience selling at local markets in places such as Elora and Dufferin Oaks, eventually led to the opportunity to take over the café space at the long-term care home.

With a heart for helping others and a vision of bringing people together through food, Gonyea is looking forward to serving the community.

Destined to Bake Café officially opens June 9.