Catering Company Prepares More Than 1,000 Meals For Halifax Charity
HALIFAX – Ankur Gupta feels privileged that his business is still open and under the circumstances is doing well.
After the Covid-19 pandemic hit, Scanway Catering, owned by Ankur and his father Raj, knew it had to transform its business plan. There would be no more hotel events in the foreseeable future, so Scanway began a delivery service called “Pantry.”
The new delivery service has been doing so well, Ankur and Raj have been slowly hiring back laid-off staff. Over the past month and a half, Pantry has also allowed Scanway to prepare meals for those most in need at the Brunswick Street Mission in Halifax.
“As Covid hit, there was going to be a food shortage, there was going to be a need,” said Ankur.
“We were still able to stay open, and we were looking for different ways to be able to help the community…it may be appropriate to reach out to an organization and see what we can do.”
The Brunswick Street Mission provides food, clothing, and other services to those most vulnerable in Halifax. Like other charities, when Covid-19 wrecked the economy, they became busier than ever before. At the height of the pandemic, the mission was providing 350 meals a day to people.
Businesses recently closed were giving places like Brunswick Street Mission a ton of raw product that would, otherwise, go to spoil.
“Sometimes you can be overwhelmed with kindness,” said Brunswick Street Mission executive director Sandy Nicholas
“When this whole thing hit, it was like a tidal wave, especially with the restaurants closing. So many were dropping off raw produce on a daily basis, to the point where we couldn’t even use half of it. So it was really overwhelming.”
When Ankur called Sandy to offer some help, they came up with a creative solution. Scanway would use its labour and kitchen space to create quality meals from the donated ingredients that were pouring in from suppliers. Over a month and a half later, Scanway has prepared more than 1,000 meal portions for the mission.
“We come from an East Indian heritage… we come from humble backgrounds and we both had to work very hard for where we are. We’re privileged and blessed to be where we are,” said Ankur.
“We will take this raw product, we’ll use our own labour, and convert that into mashed potatoes or whatever, and we will donate that to the mission.”
For Sandy, having Ankur and Raj on board was a perfect match for the mission’s needs. The volunteers at Brunswick Street didn’t have the kitchen space or the experience to prepare so many meals. So Scanway entered their lives at the right moment.
“When Ankur called with a slightly different approach, it was really quite the lifesaver… It was an absolute Godsend to have someone who felt like a partner in all this.
“None of us had any knowledge of how to run a kitchen with this kind of volume.”
Scanway is also continuing to find new ways to expand their business in the post-Covid world. Ankur believes businesses will have to be more creative and flexible in how they deliver products to their costumers, especially in the food-service industry.
“Covid has taught us over the last couple of months that food businesses are going to have to be nimble, with respect to how they get food into people’s hands. They’re not going to be able to do it the same, traditional, way.”