North Bay Fire and Emergency Services were treated to lunch made by culinary arts students at Canadore College Tuesday.
Firefighters brought their trucks to the 100 Elements restaurant at the college to receive gourmet sandwiches and sides as part of an ongoing initiative run by the program.
Shelley Busch, Culinary Coordinator at Canadore, says the students have been feeding frontline workers with lunches since January.
“We like to do volunteer work within the community and do a lot of special functions,” Busch explained. “It was close to our hearts.”
Busch says because 100 Elements was forced into curbside pickup, the restaurant was not seeing as many lunch orders. As a compromise, they began feeding frontline workers to allow students to continue learning the skills.
Cherelyn Giguere is one of those students, currently in her first year of the program as the mother to a 14-year-old.
“Being able to give back to people who are working really hard is really important to me,” she said, adding she often does her own volunteer work on the side.
And the firefighters have been working hard as of late.
Terry Hargrave, fire captain for North Bay Fire and Emergency Services says the lunch for his crew is an example of some of the bright spots firefighters have had during the pandemic.
“It’s been challenging, especially this last week,” he said. “There’s been some negative stuff but the positives far outweigh those negatives.”
Hargrave and his team were not entirely sure why they were invited to Canadore on Tuesday, being surprised by the complimentary lunch.
“We had an idea what was going, but we didn’t a full understanding,” he explained “It’s very nice.”
