CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — The Culinary Institute of Canada turned the misfortune of an unexpected closure into a blessing when the school recently donated 1,500 pounds of fresh produce to Holland College residence students.
The school had just had a delivery of fresh food on March 13, when the decision was made to end classes to avoid the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19 strain).
“We feed around 600 students every day at the Culinary Institute, and we always have three to five days of fresh food," said Austin Clement, culinary program manager.
"So when we decided over the weekend to shut down in response to COVID-19, we already had fresh food delivered on Friday and some more coming on Monday."
Staff had to decide quickly what could be frozen and what had to go.
"We sat around the table and thought how are we going to manage that, as students are always our first consideration,” he said.
In the end, staff decided to fill boxes, 75 in all, with fresh produce like eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, tomatoes, fruits and herbs.
The boxes were put on trucks, and Tracey Campbell, accommodation manager of the residences, ensured the produce was divided between the residents.
“I just loved the look on people's faces when they come into the lobby with ‘Oh my God, there's fresh food! Is it for us?',” said Campbell.
Students were instructed not to mix and match and not to congregate.
"Students were going through food looking at each other asking 'What the heck is this fruit’ or ‘What the heck is this vegetable'. Because, things like dragon fruit, how are you even going to cut that?” said Campbell laughing.
Two or three culinary students in each lobby helped people out by telling them about the veggies, fruits and herbs students found in the boxes.
Keeghan Gillis, a second-year event management student who lives in Glendenning Hall, was curious when she saw a post online informing students of the available food.
“I told my roommates 'Hey, let's go down and check it out.' When we got down there I was blown away at all the food," Gillis said.
"All this high-quality food that we now had available. It was amazing to see how much the college and the residence itself came together to offer student support. It also saved all the food from going to waste."
The next day, when Campbell went back to work, she could tell the food was going to good use.
“It was so obvious people were cooking, and so many beautiful scents in the air. I think stew was the number one thing, as there were so many fresh vegetables there. It was such a positive experience, and we are so grateful to the culinary to be so generous. I think it really brought the community together. I'm very grateful they thought of us," she said.
Students were sharing the recipes with each other in person and on social media, said Campbell.
“It took a lot of tension out of the day as a lot of students didn't know they would be able to go home or stay in the residence. There's a lot of stress involved with people living in the residence right now, so I think it was a very bright part of their week,” she said.
As for the other food delivered to the culinary institute, Clement said most of his suppliers were good about making other arrangements so there was no further financial loss or food going bad.
“In such a crisis our suppliers were working very close with us to minimize the financial impact of all of this,” said Clement.
“Purity Dairy will be an example, they came back and took all our dairy products.”
The meat, dairy, poultry and seafood ordered for that Monday was not delivered in the end, saving tens of thousand dollars for the culinary school, said Clement.
Another delivery of groceries went with another truck to to the Upper Room Hospitality Ministry's soup kitchen.
