Nourished. By Nature

I had a really unpleasant experience in this juice bar. I brought my little daughter in to get some juice. She was having trouble keeping her mask on so I said to the owner it would be great if she could mask up because masked adults are the only thing protecting kids who don’t yet have the option of being vaccinated. The owner said she’s vaccinated and so, because she now feels safe, she’s not masking up anymore because she doesn’t care about the transmission risk to others. And that she doesn’t want to hear my “liberal politics”. I recognize it’s her choice not to mask up given that it’s her business. And it’s my choice to come in with my daughter. But the point that’s missing in that line of thinking is that after a year and a half of being outdoors it’s actually really exciting for a kid to go inside a store to pick out some juice. All we’re asking for is to be able to do so safely. It seems like a small inconvenience to mask up for a short period of time while kids are in the store in order to make it a safe space. Unfortunately kids don’t yet have the privilege afforded to this owner to feel safe and vaccinated indoors. I would think health and safety would be aligned with this store’s philosophy given that their objective is to make healthy products available to the community. But it’s obvious that this owner doesn’t care at all about the safety for kids now that she herself feels safe. Obviously we will not be going back - it’s just disappointing that we can’t mask up around kids for the 15 minutes while they’re inside picking out juice and waiting for smoothies to be made.