When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. The world stopped in March of 2020 as we all went into quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We knew The Dockside Bistro would not be opening anytime soon.
While renovating the Baptist Church, we were still running our catering business in Toronto. That also came to an abrupt halt in March of 2020 as all our corporate catering events were cancelled. Catering requires a lot of advance planning and we already purchased food for many of our events — in large quantities! We could not let that food go to waste.
We were so grateful to be a part of this wonderful community and knew there were many people in need. Suddenly, we had time on our hands and a lot of food. It made sense to cook for the community. Thus began our weekly Free Meals for Those In Need campaign. Each week we cooked 150 plus entrees which were then delivered by volunteers to the community. Delicious entrees made from fresh ingredients — food we would serve in our restaurant.
Initially we planned to run this program for a few weeks until we ran out of ingredients, which happened quickly. Ready to ride out the rest of the quarantine at home, the community rallied, and the weekly meals were back on. Soon we began receiving donations to buy ingredients, more volunteers joined in to help — it was incredible! So, we continued to cook and deliver meals each Thursday for several month. We were both overjoyed and humbled by the support!
