Some good news for struggling BC restaurants that have been forced to yet again close dine-in service in the wake of a recently renewed province-wide shutdown.

The BC government has announced a $50-million circuit breaker relief grant that will open for applications by businesses and restaurants beginning next week.

An article in @viawesome details that the grant will allow restaurants and other affected businesses to receive up to $10K in a one-time relief cheque that can go towards anything from regular costs like wages, maintenance and utility to emergency costs like perishable food replacement.

However, restaurants and other businesses that have had their licences revoked due to non-compliance of health and safety protocols — including the latest circuit-breaker closure of dine-in — will not be eligible for the grant.

The payout amount to each applicant will be determined by the size of the applicant’s workforce.

Applicants have been promised a ‘streamlined’ process for grant assessment, with Kahlon saying businesses only need to provide proof of operation in BC (I.e. business/liquor license) and their deposit account information.

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

This quote comes from an article that appeared recently in @globeandmail by @lexxgill that featured Tiago de Souza Jensen — ‘the newly unemployed general manager and sommelier’ of Vancouver’s @burdockandco.

The 25-year-old bristled last week when BC Premier John Horgan called out young people in BC, implying that their socializing and partying was adding to the province’s pandemic woes while simultaneously introducing new restrictions that threaten to put thousands of those same people in the food and beverage industry out of work.

“We’re not your scapegoats,” de Souza Jensen said. He then launched a letter-writing campaign to encourage other hospitality workers to invoice their NDP MLAs for the ‘mountain’ of work they put in last week to reschedule reservations, hastily prepare takeout systems and shut down dining rooms for the three-week closure which is slated to end April 19.

In the same article, Jeff Guignard, executive director at Alliance of Beverage Licensees (ABLE BC) allows that there are some who have not been following the rules, but “…there are thousands more who are working their butts off every day to adhere to the most stringent practices and trying to do the right thing.

“When they hear this type of blame and finger-wagging, there’s bound to be a backlash. The stern-dad dress-down isn’t going to work.”

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.

A big Breaking Bread SALUTE to Shiva Reddy, who is chipping in and giving back to hospitality workers with her ‘Reddy to Help’ project. She’s serving up kindness (and curries) for her fellow out-of-work friends in the industry who have been waylaid by the recent shutdown of dine-in service across BC that was announced last Monday.

And she felt the pinch firsthand — Reddy (formerly of Hawksworth, Boulevard, Savio Volpe and many more local hotspots) — was about to embark on her new stint as GM & Wine Director at @barbararestaurant when the latest lockdown suddenly curtailed that venture.

What did she do? This indefatigable industry vet took a breath, hunkered down and got to work in her home kitchen.

Even more heartwarming is the fact that in preparing the meals, she has also been able to enlist the help of her immuno-compromised mother who suffers from dementia and kidney disease and whom she has been caring for in her mother’s home for the past few weeks.

“I won’t sugarcoat it — it’s been incredibly rough,” Shiva says. “Because the hospital system has been so backlogged, she has not been able to get the help she needs. Just last week she was taken to emergency four times. I watch her lie on the couch all day long in pain. She forgets to eat. She forgets to take her medication. She forgets who she is.”

Turns out, however, that this latest venture has been a healing process for both of the Reddys.

“As soon as I start cooking meals for this project she somehow manages to to get up and take the spoon out of my hand and starts cooking by muscle memory. Having her cook with me has really brought back the light in her that I haven’t seen in years. She gets cheeky and sassy and it feels like I have my mom back again.”

Feel free to DM Shiva at @itsreddy91 or email her at shiva.reddy91@gmail.com for more information or to donate to this very timely and worthy cause.

Stand tall. Stay strong. Show love. Support local.