WINNIPEG - A Winnipeg restaurant is pivoting once again, this time to help fellow food service businesses amid a return to tough public health orders. Four Crowns Hotel and Restaurant owner Ravi Remberran says, as tables sit empty in mall food courts under the new health and safety requirements, he’d like to buy stock that may otherwise go to waste.
The province says, starting today, restaurants in shopping malls can stay open, but may only allow takeout, with customers eating on the go. Remberran says, for many, that may now mean there’s excess food inventory held by food court eateries, and he’d like to buy what he can, for a fair price, to help make sure those businesses can stay afloat.
Remberran says he plans to donate any extra food he can’t use to the Leftovers Foundation, which began operations in Winnipeg last October after getting its start in Calgary coordinating delivery of excess, edible food to local shelters that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Remberran says he knows what it’s like for a business to struggle financially as a result of public health orders, but throughout the pandemic his restaurant and hotel has found creative ways to thrive, while also serving the community. In mid-October Ramberran had to close his beverage room and banquet spaces and lay off more than a dozen employees. Then for Halloween he decided to transform much of the extra space into a COVID-safe haunted house. Then in November, Four Crowns opened up their hotel rooms as a temporary shelter for those fleeing domestic violence.
Those who’d like to sell their excess food inventory to Four Crowns Restaurant can reach them on social media or call 204-589-7314.
Photo: fourcrowns.ca
What do you think?