A Langley, B.C., caterer is raising red flags, after she says her company received multiple recent requests to cater large events, despite COVID-19 restrictions.
Angie Quaale of Well Seasoned Catering told Global News she’s only had sporadic catering requests in recent months, so she was shocked to have three people try and place large orders within the last week.
One was for a baptism with 20 people, while another was for a Super Bowl party with 30 people, she said.
“It’s just surprising to me after the provincial health officer has asked us to sort of double down on our efforts, but all of a sudden people are interested in partying again. It just seems so counterproductive.”
Quaale said she turned the would-be customers down, and referred them to B.C.’s COVID-19 provincial health orders.
The province has been consistent in its advice against gathering indoors with others since the spring, and formalized a ban on any events or social gatherings whatsoever in November.
Baptisms and weddings are permitted, so long as they have 10 or fewer participants, but receptions before or afterward are not permitted.
On Monday, provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry pleaded with the public to “do more” to fight the virus over the next two weeks, citing a plateau in daily new cases and hospitalizations.
“This isn’t a new situation, I’m not sure why people still have questions about what’s going on or not,” Quaale said.
“I personally don’t know anybody that has 30 people in their house, but I suppose it is possible. But when I refer them to the CDC website, they don’t write back and say ‘Oh, these are my entire family.'”
Quaale’s company has stayed active by doing curbside pickup of pre-packaged meals, and offering limited catering to companies that want to provide individually portioned meals to employees.
“But having a single party with trays of food that people are sharing is not acceptable at all,” she said.
“I mean, double dipping is bad enough before COVID, but certainly now it’s even worse.”
B.C.’s latest round of COVID-19 restrictions is scheduled to remain in place until Feb. 5, but officials have not ruled out extending them.
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