Vancouver’s Italian Cultural Centre shifts from hosting weddings to making thousands of ‘Meals With Dignity’

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — A Vancouver banquet hall –forced to cancel several events because of COVID-19– is now busy preparing thousands of meals for seniors, kids, and vulnerable families.

Mario Miceli, the Executive Director of Il Centro, says a team of volunteers, including their chef, is making nourishing meals that normally would have been distributed through the Vancouver School District’s Lunch Lab program.

“We have chefs that come from other restaurants and we prepare the food, package it and it gets handed out in our massive parking lot. We’ve moved that environment that would have been at the schools here to Il Centro, so we’re feeding these families who, otherwise, would have been fed through the school program.”

He says the Italian Cultural Centre, located on Grandview Highway near Nanaimo, may not be hosting dozens of weddings this summer, but the large kitchen is not quiet. With enough support, their new Meals with Dignity program can keep going after the pandemic ends.

“The intention there is it’s not just random meals. It’s a properly prepared four or five-course meal. That food will go to making sure that we can provide these meals to those who are food insecure because, as you say, even when we’re back to normal, the world doesn’t go back to normal when it comes to food security.”

While some funding is covered by grant money, Miceli says they depend on donations from partners including Yen Brothers and Gordon Food Services to keep the program going.

“They’re providing nutritious meals, most importantly, kid-friendly meals because we know kids are the biggest critics of food, so they’ve been able to satisfy at every level. At Il Centro, we’ve decided to also work with Grandview Woodland through Britannia Community Centre to feed seniors who are vulnerable.”

Miceli tells NEWS 1130 the goal of Meals with Dignity is to provide at least 200 meals per week.

“The seniors prefer that we have some of our pasta dishes, but we also provide salads that go along with it. We have a lot of soups that we offer, there was a chili that was coming out and greek salad that was being put together, so there’s quite a variety of food. It’s not necessarily just Italian and of course, when we get contributions, we have to try to make the best of what we receive.”

He adds their catering service is also preparing meals for take-out to help recover some revenue lost from all the events they’ve had to cancel or postpone over the last couple of months.