TORONTO — After 500,000 meals, Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment's community meal donation program is coming to an end.
But the kitchen remains open as Chris Zielinski, culinary director and executive chef for all MLSE properties, and his team of chefs turn their attention to helping feed some 600 people at the NHL's Toronto hub as hockey resumes play.
The MLSE meal program called Bringing Toronto Back To Its Feet was scheduled through the end of July. It saw Scotiabank Arena turned into a giant kitchen, with BMO Field's kitchens and facilities also involved in meal production.
"We survived and we're on to a whole new thing now," said Zielinski.
Scotiabank Arena is hosting games while BMO Field is being used as an outdoor training facility by participating teams.
Zielinski is planning everything from outdoors BBQs to Taco Nights for the NHL teams, league officials and broadcast crew who will be based in the Toronto hub.
"After you've made 15,000 meals in a day, serving 600 to hockey players doesn't seem that hard," he said.
Zielinski will be serving food at seven different locations, including several at Scotiabank Arena. The BMO Club at BMO Field is being converted into an a la carte restaurant, with games being shown on the big screen in the stadium.
MLSE, meanwhile, will continue to distribute meals to community agencies through the end of the month. The program is also donating 15,000 pounds of food and meal preparation resources to Second Harvest, the largest food rescue organization in Canada.
Second Harvest, helped by a network of local suppliers and sponsors, supplied fresh ingredients daily to the MLSE team. The chefs then turned those supplies, along with other food purchased or donated to the program, into ready-to-heat single-serving or family meals.
"It's crazy to think but really 24 people made 500,000 meals," said Zielinski.
While there were 250 people working shifts building and packing the meals, a crew of 24 chefs cooked them.
"The chefs were the same 24 people from start to finish," said Zielinski.
The chefs had to be spread among Scotiabank Arena's kitchens to ensure physical distancing.
Since its inception in April, the program has provided meals to more than 75 community agencies, including local shelters, as well as front-line health-care workers and their families at 25 hospitals and health-care facilities in the Greater Toronto Area.
"These past three months have demonstrated what is possible when we work together and put community first," MLSE chairman Larry Tanenbaum said in a statement.
Others also stepped up.
Maple Lodge Farms provided 70,000 pounds of chicken, Unico/Primo contributed 45,000 pounds of pasta and canned goods, McCain chipped in with 55,000 pounds of potatoes and Mars Food gave 15,000 pounds of rice.
Sysco logged more than 400 hours and 10,000 kilometres in delivering the meals throughout the city.
MLSE president and CEO Michael Friisdahl said the job is not done.
"We recognize that there is still much work to do, and while our venues serve an important role over the next two months in bringing hockey back to millions of fans, our long-standing support of community agencies through Second Harvest will ensure this important work continues," he said.
MLSE's chefs are working with Second Harvest to support the start-up of its own commissary kitchens to produce meals moving forward.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2020.
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Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press