With the national Truth and Reconciliation event currently happening at The Forks and attracting thousands of people from all across Canada, very few think about what it takes to feed all those hungry residential school survivors. The man in charge of that job has no easy task.
Executive chef of the University of Winnipeg’s Diversity Food Services, Ben Kramer, is overseeing a staff of between 15-25 around the clock.
When everything is made from scratch, and not already processed, it’s an even bigger task, but one that Kramer is up to and seems to be managing well. As the caterer for the event, Kramer fed 3,155 lunches on Thursday alone. Today and Saturday, he’ll prepare 3,655 lunches each day, including drinks. Earlier in the week, staff fed volunteers, but Thursday was the first official day where they were catering to all the attendees.
“We support as much local producers as we can, so we are buying local chicken, ham, lettuce etc.,” Kramer tells ChrisD.ca.
300 lbs of ham, 400 lbs of beef and 350 lbs of chicken are all being used this week courtesy of local Manitoba farmers.
But despite having a catered meal all ready, business inside The Forks hasn’t slowed down for many of the food vendors. In fact, an employee at Beachcomber restaurant says business has increased by over 250% this week alone.
Image credit: Ian McCausland/University of Winnipeg
