In response to the current Covid19 outbreak, we have been considering our approach moving forward as suggested by the Interior Health and Health Canada guidelines to this point. Things are changing daily, (rapidly at that), and up until this point we have felt it was in the interest of our clients, family, staff and business to not jump to any conclusions, while keeping ourselves accurately informed as much as is possible with the information available to us at this time.
The health and safety of our clients and guests has always been paramount, and we have put thoughtful consideration into how we may be able to adjust our processes to effectively minimize the risk associated with the current concerns with the containment and spread of this virus. We have always prided ourselves in exceeding the guidelines of Interior Health, and will continue to make adjustments to our business practices reflective of the suggestions of the local and provincial health authority. As we are a facility providing PRIVATE culinary experiences, we understand that our risk is lower than what is considered typical. With this in mind, we can also appreciate our responsibility to mitigate the potential risks of having guests join us for their pre-booked tailored culinary experience. It has become relevant as of late that our clients have been reaching out requesting information regarding our deposit terms for future events, whether we have made any adjustments to these terms in light of the loss of control over the potential time frame, government mandates of ceasing operations-while trying to balance these pressures with the needs of our family and future as a small, independent and incredibly seasonal operation. We are many in our community of operators, owners and managers of similar businesses with unique regional and industry challenges. For the past 7 seasons, you have shown your support and encouragement for our efforts, inspiring us to continue our pursuit of exceeding the expectations of our guests, partners and clients in hospitality.
Currently, we are keeping open and consistent communication with our winery partners, community alliances and fellow hospitality peers to ensure we are collectively planning how we as a community can support each-other during this very troubling and stressful time for the industry in our beautiful region. At this time, we are requesting patience and tolerance while we all navigate through this unknown territory, and that many uncontrollable variables are impacting the ability for small business owners such as ourselves to keep our doors open in the foreseeable future. Moving forward, we encourage our clients to contact us and discuss any concerns, recognizing that we prefer to adjust our business as necessary with the suggestions of Interior Health and Health Canada. With so much easily accessible information, we find it overwhelming to make an informed conclusion of what is most responsible for our community while considering the needs of our family, staff, clients and future operations. We hope you appreciate the weight of these decisions, many that depend on us for their livelihood, and our ability to grow and maintain our business.
We have started forwarding our confirmed booking organizers a request to speak with all of their intended guests about their recent travels along with general health and well being in order to reaffirm our commitment to providing a safe, healthy and controlled private culinary experience at Backyard Farm Chef’s Table. Currently, we hope that you will consider our approach to play it week by week, obviously keeping in close communication with confirmed clients regarding our availability. We would prefer to cancel private events at the client request unless advised to do otherwise by Interior Health. We are happy to discuss our deposit terms with clients directly, maintaining our personal approach to offering a tailored experience paying tribute to food and wine culture in the South Okanagan. At this time, we are fully confident that our private facility does uphold the social distancing suggestions currently in place.
In the interim, we are considering a food and wine culture delivery program in collaboration with some of our valued friends in business, and will be sure to update you as details move forward. We are discussing the potential of offering handcrafted meal deliveries based upon logistics, ingredient availability and demand vs. supply-“Rico” the sweet catering van is now back on the road in anticipation as we move forward during this crisis. We appreciate your continued support and concern as we feel very fortunate for the opportunity to raise our family and grow our business in such a great community. We will all learn and grow from this experience in our strong community of like-minded, passionate and dedicated people we can rely on, especially when we all need to. Thank you!
For the time being, we will continue to be building the infrastructure to expand the amount of food we grow, hoping to offset the losses we are incurring currently. Kyle will continue to work with us, whether it is building beds, helping in the kitchen-we will do all we can to support him as much as we can with so much unknown in the future. We will also be focusing on stockpiling our handcrafted retail products and preserves, hoping that when things settle down our winery friends will have a wealth of our products back on their shelves. Not unlike our restaurant and hospitality industry peers, we will need the support of all of you to continue in business as we have always intended. As new information is brought forward, we will adjust as recommended, and hope to see through another beautiful tourism season in the Okanagan. Likely, our team will be in need of some kitchen hands as we see a resolution to this crisis, we like everyone else just can’t say when………..Let’s keep looking out for one another, taking care of those in need and stay strong and optimistic in the future, as most certainly this will come to an end, we will repair and move on continuing to share our passion for our family, farm, food and wine culture in our beautiful region.
Chris, Mikkel, Kyle, Mo, Max, Ainsley and Baker.