Closed kitchen helping fuel the front line
King’s Landing Restobar has delivered hundreds of meals to front-line workers in the city
About 300 front-line workers in Hamilton have traded in brown-bag lunches for something more special: a meal from King’s Landing, a restobar in the city’s Rosedale neighbourhood.
“For a restaurant, this is a way that we can contribute because we can’t do other things, like use a sewing machine or anything else,” said Jae Shim, the restaurant’s owner.
Shim launched Fuel the Front Line as a way of giving back and keeping some of his staff employed on a part-time basis during the COVID-19 pandemic. The restaurant, which is closed to the public, is preparing atcost — about $10 — meals with donations from the community and delivering them to staff at hospitals, shelters and other essential services in the city.
“This business is really, really neighbourhood driven,” Shim said. “The amount of support we’ve gotten just from this little community of customers that we have, it is amazing.”
Donations range from $10 to $200, and every cent goes toward buying food, paying staff to prepare it and delivering it to front-line workers. So far, the campaign has generated about $3,000 in donations.
Since the beginning of April, the team at King’s Landing has delivered hundreds of meals to front-line workers at Hamilton Paramedic Services, St. Joseph’s Healthcare, Good Shepherd and Metro grocery store, among others.
“We’ll do it as long as there’s a need for it. We’re here to do it as long as there’s the community support behind it,” Shim said.
Front-line workers hold a special place in Shim’s heart. His mother was a nurse at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto during the 2003 SARS outbreak. Shim said the campaign is just as much about human connection as it is about fulfilling basic needs.
“It’s the sentiment behind what we’re doing,” he said. “It’s a show of support.”