The 100 Mile Food Bank’s call for donations was answered this week by several local restaurants donating their fresh produce after closing due to COVID-19.
The food was donated Monday by Natalie Cox of GBR and included food from the Red Rock Grill, owned by Cox’s partner James Clancy and his business partner Miles Theoret, and the Hungry Bear Diner, courtesy of their good friends Terry and Renee Barton. Cox is a permanent resident from New Zealand who said she loves both 100 Mile House and the Cariboo, as she views it as a bigger wilder version of New Zealand.
The donation began to come together last Friday, Cox said, as the Hungry Bear closed down and she was told by Terry that he was bringing her all of their remaining fresh produce. While she herself was considering closing at that point, she still accepted a few cases of mushrooms, tomatoes and all sorts of other produce from him. On Saturday, however, Cox decided to close due to advisements by the government.
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Initially, she said she gave a bunch of the food to her staff and encouraged anyone who needed anything to take something.
“When I closed I didn’t know what to do with everything and it seemed like such a waste. I had two cases of lettuce, a case of tomatoes all sorts,” Cox said.
On Monday, Cox went into GBR to clean up and then went over to the Red Rock where she cleaned out their fridges and returned to her restaurant to clear out her own fridges. Loading it all up, she made a few care packages for her elderly neighbours and then took the rest of it up to the food bank.
“It seemed like a simple thing to do for me cause I didn’t want to waste the food,” Cox said. “It’s just what we need to do, I didn’t think too much about it. I just had all this food I was trying to give away and the food bank is the place people go to get food.”
As this food would soon go bad otherwise, Cox felt it was important to make it useful to someone and avoid wasting it.
Cox said she’s a big proponent right now of staying home and avoiding possibly spreading the virus. The way she sees it the sooner people do that the sooner we’ll all be able to return to our normal lives.
newsroom@100milefreepress.net
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