St.Amant Café Changes

Marek’s contract officially ends June 11 and St.Amant Nutrition Services will again be operated completely by St.Amant staff and management, including catering. Since announcing the termination of Marek’s contract, we have completed a review of the Café operations in our continued efforts to reduce expenses and ensure that St.Amant is operating as efficiently as possible. As a government funded agency, this is in line with our government funder’s priorities as well as with our own mission to ensure that our funding is used appropriately for people supported by St.Amant.
The review demonstrated that there are very few sales in the afternoon in the Café and that the number and variation of meals purchased suggest that a reduced menu would be more appropriate. Considering these results we are making a few key changes that will begin on June 12, 2017, they are:

Hours & Menu

Café Hours: the new Café hours are 7:45 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. everyday
Café Menu: Many old favorites will be brought back along with some exciting new entrees. We will continue to offer made-to-order salads, but all wraps and sandwiches will be pre-made, in-house by St.Amant employees and packaged for quicker, more convenient service. There will be one less entrée per day and a smaller grill menu.
Most important is that all items will continue to be made fresh in-house.
Additions: New to the menu will be: pizza Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and new soup specials that will include a fresh baked bun or scone, etc. The Café will have the addition of vending machines for frozen entrees and coffee as an option for people working or visiting after café hours.

New Service

Coffee Cart: St.Amant is looking at starting various social enterprises including a coffee cart. This cart would potentially sell coffee, tea and a few baked items and could operate after the Café closes as well as offer morning and afternoon rounds in the secondary building. The details are not finalized, but this is in the works. This enterprise will give people with disabilities the opportunity to learn job skills, gain experience and earn a wage.

Payment

Credit/Debit: Although we anticipate a smooth changeover from Marek back to St.Amant, we are ordering a new debit/credit card machine and plan for it to be operational on June 12 (barring no delays). There will be a small fee for use of the debit/credit machine, still to be determined
Marek Club Cards: We will continue to honour the Marek Club Cards already in use, but will stop handing them out today.
Prepaid Cards: These will be discontinued, so the balance on existing cards should be used prior to June 11, 2017. The option to load additional funds onto the PPD cards will be removed in the near future, however it is highly recommended that loading of additional funds to these cards end immediately, to avoid the risk of having an unused balance on a card that is no longer valid. We will continue to accept the cards as payment until the switchover on June 11.
We are grateful to the Nutrition Services team for their flexibility, creativity and openness to these changes. Thank you for your patience during the transition.
We know that this is a change for families and visitors and have consulted with some family members about the change and are open to feedback.
If you have any questions, you can contact rquinn@stamant.ca or ext. 2285.