Food businesses in southern Quebec expect to lose thousands of dollars due to the ice storm, which forces them to close their doors or even throw away their food due to the power outage.
“It’s hell. At first, we found it funny to be in the dark in a kitchen and we kept our heads up. But when I saw that the power wasn’t coming back, I didn’t sleep all night to find solutions”, tells the Log Danna Mazzola, confused by the events.
Photo courtesy of Danna Mazzola
Danna Mazzola in the kitchen of her closed business due to the storm.
The 27-year-old, who heads the Mazzola caterer in Gatineau, says her family business has never run out of power in nearly 30 years.
“It’s about 2,500 meals that could not be delivered today, in particular because of the schools that had to close. In all, we think we lost $200,000 with the breakdown that prevents our fridges and freezers from working. We will certainly throw away a lot of food if the electricity does not come back this weekend”, sighs Mme Mazzola.
- Listen to the interview with Danna Mila Mazzola, director of Entreprise Mazzola in Gatineau on Yasmine Abdelfadel’s show broadcast live via QUB-radio :
Everything to save ice cream
Robert Walkers, owner of Crème Glacée Walkers on the South Shore of Montreal, hardly slept to save his products on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
Photo provided by Robert Walkers
Robert Walkers and Kimberly Lajoie in front of their ice cream business on the South Shore of Montreal.
“We are in crisis here, launches the trader on the phone. I worked all night hauling gas for our generators in Mercier and Chateauguay. We try to keep our products frozen. It’s quite a special situation.”
Mr Walkers adds that he relied on the Easter weekend to maximize his income, but the storm melted his plans like snow in the sun.
Photo provided by Robert Walkers
Counter at Walkers Ice Cream in Mercier, where the owners stayed up all night to save their frozen goods.
“With everything that is happening, we are forced to close and we do not know when we will reopen. We had to give 50% off our stock in Châteauguay to sell it before losing everything,” explains the businessman.
Forced close
The newspaper also found that dozens of restaurants and businesses were forced to close on Thursday due to the outage. At the time of writing his lines, nearly 1.2 million households are still without electricity in Quebec.
“We will have thousands of dollars in loss unfortunately. Our products must be stored and prepared in the cold, we cannot work properly and we are unable to open today, ”warns Jérôme Pelletier, for example, of the Le Boucanier store in Montreal.
Here are some restaurateurs who closed their doors on Thursday since they are without electricity:
Recall that according to the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food of Quebec (MAPAQ), “one involves a household among the foods stored in the refrigerator”.
Still according to the ministry, a full freezer can however store food without any problem for 48 hours.