Earlier this month, the Keystone Centre, and exclusive catering company, Centerplate, have donated their remaining food inventory to local Brandon food banks and charities.

This most recent food donation, with a value of approximately $12,500, will support Helping Hands Centre Brandon, Everyone Eats Brandon, and the Samaritan House.

“Despite the unfortunate circumstances that led to this extra inventory, making this donation with our partners at Centerplate was an easy decision,” says Jeff Schumacher, CEO and general manager of the Keystone Centre. “It’s no secret that the Keystone Centre has been affected by the lack of events due to COVID-19. With that said, so have local food banks, and when presented with an opportunity to give back to the community, we want to take advantage of that opportunity whenever possible.”

Director of Marketing, Jared McKenzie, says since March 14th of 2020, the Keystone Centre has only been able to host a small number of socially distanced gatherings, and has been largely unable to serve food, due to the COVID-19 health guidelines.   

‘In that time, the Keystone Centre and Centerplate have made several donations to Samaritan House, Helping Hands Centre Brandon, Brandon Bear Clan, and the United Way’s Fill the Trailer Project,’ states their recent Media Release.

“It’s extra inventory that we wouldn’t normally have, but rather than let it go bad we definitely want to be able to support community and the food banks, which have also been hit very hard with COVID-19.”

Upcoming events determine the stocking of the shelves, week by week, shares McKenzie.  “With a normal year, we’re ordering food in regularly for things like hockey games and regular events on the calendar, and then supplementing that for other events that come up, like small meetings, dinners, wedding, things like that that we’re able to accommodate.  So, it really depends on our event calendar and when we can ramp that up.”

McKenzie says this is one way to give back to the community.