Prior to the pandemic, on a regular day we would serve 125 people at breakfast and 200 at lunch. Right now, breakfast is around 160 to 180 and lunch is closer to 300.
We are one of the only drop-in centers still open. We have our usual clientele – folks who live in the Parkdale area – but most of the people coming now are newer faces, people who are coming here because where they were going before has closed.
For social distancing, we now serve meals from the door and we try to prepare both breakfast and lunch together for 9:15 am to discourage people from coming to the centre twice. It’s a ton of food and it’s difficult to get it all out. It’s non-stop all day.
When I get in at 7:30 am, I finish up the meals for that day and then prepare for the following days. All of PARC’s staff is pretty much being redeployed to wherever they’re needed, so we have people filling in who don’t necessarily have a lot of cooking experience.
Irrespective of the circumstances we’re in, I feel strongly that we need to put our best foot forward. All of these people deserve a good, healthy plate of food. We’ve had to purchase more food than we normally would. The restaurant Nando’s donated quite a bit of chicken to us, which has kept us afloat, and a lot of smaller restaurants come by to donate, too. Around 80 per cent of our food comes from the [food rescue nonprofit] Second Harvest, community donations are five per cent and we’re purchasing about 15 per cent. We’ve spent a chunk of money on takeout containers and utensils. At the beginning of this, I ordered almost 20,000 containers from Costco. In one day, breakfast and lunch could use up close to 500 containers.
Today, breakfast was rice pudding with yogurt and fruit and for lunch, corn beef and cheese grilled sandwich with veggie soup. Planning the meals is actually a passion of mine. Prior to PARC, I ran Harvest Kitchens in Scarborough. I didn’t have a budget. Anything I prepared was made from what was donated off the Second Harvest truck. You have to think on your feet. For me, I would find it totally mundane if I had to work with a pre-set menu. I like to go in and decide, “all right, we have chicken, but it’s not enough for a meal. How I can stretch it?” I’d make something like chicken tetrazzini. Last week we got a bunch of peaches in, so I made meatballs in a peach sauce.
One of my mottos is that you don’t leave hungry. We might run out of today’s prepared meal, but we’ll do something up real quickly so you can eat.
The clients at PARC are so thankful that we’re still coming out to prepare these meals, and I get calls all the time from people who want to help, who just want to do something. It’s good to see the beauty coming out in people.
Read more frontline worker stories:
- Subarna Thirugnanam and Carmela Yambao, lead ICU physician and environmental services attendant at Markham Stouffville Hospital
- Rechev Browne, grocery store clerk at No Frills
- Paul Koblic and Yashi Yathindra, emergency doctors at at North York General and Mount Sinai (also husband and wife)
- Greg Cook, outreach worker at Sanctuary Toronto
- Kyle Johansen, operations superintendent for Peel Regional Paramedic Services
