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Stratford grocer offers customers a larger product line

By Casey Krautkramer

Lifelong Stratford residents Andrew Cveykus and Gordie Rundle, co-owners of Stratford Family Foods, have made many enhancements to the grocery store for their customers since they began operating it on April 15.

Last spring, Cveykus and Rundle bought Davel’s grocery from Ken and Mary Kraus and her brother, John Davel. Cveykus and Rundle are thankful to Stratford-area residents for their great support of the grocery store since they began owning and operating it.

“We are proud to be a part of this great community of Stratford,” Cveykus said. He’s currently selling some of the 5,000 pumpkins he grows in his rural Stratford garden in front of the large window inside Stratford Family Foods.

The new owners described the changes they made to provide an even better grocery buying experience for Stratford-area residents.

“We have a bigger gluten-free section of foods so people don’t need to travel to Marshfield to buy these products,” Cveykus said. “For example, we now offer gluten-free pizza, bread and cookies. We also have a larger selection of produce and more variation of produce items for customers to buy. We

See FAMILY GROCER/ Page 5

PROUD OWNERS OF STRATFORD FAMILY FOODS- Stratford residents and grocery store co-owners Gordie Rundle, left, and Andrew Cveykus stand inside Stratford Familiy Foods on Monday morning.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER Family grocer

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now also have a hot deli bar with many various foods.”

The hot food deli bar includes fried chicken, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, grilled chicken, baked and fried fish on Fridays and chicken tenders. They sometimes also have Asian food, lasagna and barbecued ribs.

“We are working on having a daily special on hot food, and we offer a vegetable each day with the hot food dinners,” Cveykus said.

Stratford Family Foods held four outdoor cookouts in the parking lot this summer. Rundle grilled ribs during the first three cookouts and a combination of ribs and chicken during the final cookout of the summer.

“It provided Stratford-area residents a nice opportunity for them to not have to cook for themselves on these certain days,” Rundle said. “The cookouts will definitely be back again next summer.”

The co-owners of Stratford Family Foods plan to keep making improvements to their grocery store to continue to better serve their customers in the future.

Customers will often see the Cveykus and Rundle children working for their fathers in the family grocery store. They are Todd, Elise and Emma Cveykus and Gordon Rundle III.

The new grocery store co-owners retained Davel’s employees Gloria Weiland, Mona Redmann, Marilyn Leonhardt, Sandy Hill and Soloma Mast when they purchased it in spring.

PLENTY OF PUMPKINS FOR SALE- Andrew Cveykus, co-owner of Stratford Family Foods, is selling some of the 5,000 pumpkins he grew in his rural Stratford garden this summer to customers at the downtown grocery store.

STAFF PHOTO/CASEY KRAUTKRAMER