Restaurants and food banks team up

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This article was published 04/05/2020 (1980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg restaurateur has partnered with the North End’s Sscope to bring business back to restaurants, and food back to food banks.

Benjamin Nasberg, president and chief executive officer of the Carbone Restaurant Group, recently launched the Restaurant Emergency Support Fund, with Sscope (1466 Arlington St.), a non-profit charity that provides employment to people living with mental health illness.

On April 27, Nasberg and his team delivered 60 warm meals to Sscope to kick off the support fund.

“There’s been drastic declines in both sectors, with restaurants and food banks seeing declines in revenue and donations. There’s been an increased demand and increase in foot traffic in the food banks, and restaurants are seeing decreased traffic and have staff awaiting to come back to work,” Nasberg said.

Donations made to the Restaurant Emergency Support Fund (RESF) through the online GoFundMe page will be used to purchase quality food from local restaurants, and those meals will be given to food banks and charities to feed their clientele.

The initial goal of $500,000 will be enough to support 10 foundations for three months, according to the GoFundMe page. At press time, $2,330 had been raised in three days.

Restaurants must apply to access the fund and will be required to submit month-to-month profit and loss statements in order to qualify for consideration by the RESF team.

The outbreak has worsened conditions for the homeless population, Sscope’s executive director said. As a result, Sscope has adjusted its Arlington facility to be a 24-7 safe space for its clients.

“Because of the situation with COVID-19, people that were barely, barely making it, or living on the edge, are sometimes eating out of dumpsters. They need to be fed properly,” Angela McCaughan explained.

Nasberg sees the fund as a long-term initiative, adding that he expects it will take two to three years before local businesses can recover from the economic impacts caused by the pandemic.

“This is just something that I’m hoping to be able to have ongoing for good now. This fund could be used in many ways. And restaurants, many go through ups and downs, and maybe this can be around to help support them along with the food banks, long after this,” he said.

Nasberg, 33, said he was inspired to start this initiative by his two grandfathers, who had been entrenched in the Winnipeg community in various ways.

“This is why; I wanted to essentially pay tribute to them for all the hard work and dedication they gave back to Winnipeg and their family, and I’d like to be able to do the same,” he said.