There is such a thingas a free lunch
Superstore encourages communal dining at second annual Eat Together event at city locations
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 21/06/2018 (2107 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Grab-and-go lunches are a lonely routine that one supermarket chain challenged Canadians to break at its second annual store barbecue and picnic on Friday.
Loblaw, which owns 1,200 Real Canadian Superstore and No-Frills outlets, hosted its second annual Eat Together campaign to get people back to the table to share a meal.
Thousands got a free lunch and a chance to meet new people.
Eight Real Canadian Superstore locations and five No-Frills grocery stores in Winnipeg took part in the event. Each store tailored its menu to its customer base.
For example, while the McPhillips Street location served hotdogs, chips and ethnic snacks, the St. James store served Montreal smoked meat, coleslaw, potato salad and banana fritters.
One woman asked about the lineup outside the McPhillips Superstore and hesitated when she was told it was a free barbecue with hotdogs, chips and pop. She got in line after finding out it was a chance to meet new people.
“I don’t think people sit down and eat together anymore,” said McPhillips Street assistant store manager Cindy Danchuk, clearly delighted with the positive reception at her location.
She and other store staffers stuffed nearly 600 barbecued hotdogs into buns during the first 90 minutes of the event that started at 11 a.m. and lasted into the evening.
“That’s the big thing we’re trying to establish here, to get people to sit down and eat together,” Danchuk said.
A recent British study found corporate culture encourages office workers to eat alone, leading to feelings of isolation and unhappiness.
The Oxford Economic Survey is a well-known index in the United Kingdom and its findings were no surprise. In Canada, University of Toronto behavioural science lecturer Nick Hobson, who was tapped by Loblaw for its campaign, said progressive companies encourage workers to take a lunch break together.
“They are tapping into the ancient human practice, knowing well and good that eating together is the furthest thing from wasting precious work time,” Hobson said in Loblaw’s press statements on the campaign.
Loblaw’s President’s Choice brand also released its own survey, with findings that three-quarters of working Canadians said communication improved with co-workers when they ate together.
Nearly 60 per cent feel eating alone is now the new normal at work and feel obligated to eat at their desks, according to findings cited by the chain.
It would be impossible to say whether one lunch makes a difference, but people who took part said it was a good idea to try.
“There’s people here talking who don’t know each other. They’re like, you sit here and you start talking,” Elsie Bagan said.
“It’s wonderful. A great idea. I just sat with a whole bunch of people,” she enthused as she wheeled her cart stacked with groceries through the parking lot in 30 C heat.
Runner Neil Willim found himself chatting with his tablemates about his trek through part of the Christian pilgrimage Camino de Santiago. He said he’d just returned from walking 525 kilometres of the 780-kilometre journey. Also called the Way of St. James, it traces an arduous ancient walking route through some of the wildest and most beautiful parts of France and Spain. The route was also the backdrop for the 2010 Spanish film, The Way, directed, produced and written by Emilio Estevez, which starred his father, Martin Sheen.
“I can run a half-marathon, but I just wasn’t sure I could walk the whole way with a 20-pound backpack,” he told Gail Sawit and her mother Dominga Parinas as they ate together. “And it wasn’t hot like this.”
“A lot of the time I just bypass stuff like this,” Willim told a reporter afterward.
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
History
Updated on Saturday, June 23, 2018 7:54 AM CDT: Final