Photo Ed Halverson

Meals on wheels is coming in hot to North Queens.

At the start of November, the VON program expanded from a frozen meal service for people who have trouble leaving home to include a hot lunch delivery service.

Community support services program coordinator Heather Kelly says the program has evolved from its initial purpose of serving people who struggled to cook for themselves.

“Nowadays, the program is sort of expanding to people that don’t have time or don’t have time to get out,” said Kelly. “For them, it’s just easier to have a meal delivered to them.”

Hot meals will be provided off the regular menu at the Hollow Log café for a cost of $6 per meal, subsidized by the VON.

Volunteers pick up the meals each day at 11:00am and spend two hours delivering to homes around North Queens.

Kelly says making regular contact with people in their homes can be a lifeline for some.

“When we deliver everyday to somebody’s house that sort of indicates that there’s somebody that’s home all the time, they don’t get out a lot,” said Kelly. “Which is great, because then they have a visit everyday from somebody that will become a familiar face to them, a familiar, friendly face, and somebody that’s basically checking on them everyday to make sure that they’re okay.”

Kelly says the hot meals launched November 1 to 14 clients but has capacity to serve 25 people.

Anyone interested in volunteering or making use of the Meals on Wheels service can reach out to her by e-mail at heatherkelly@von.ca or phone 902-350-2971.

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Main Street, Liverpool. Photo Ed Halverson

The South Queens Chamber of Commerce is dusting off an old idea in the hopes of bringing more focus to the current members.

In recognition of small business week, Executive Director Heather Kelly began posting profiles of small business owners to Facebook.

Kelly says the profiles were part of a photo project completed ten years ago by Katy Hopkins and Stephen Cooper to showcase some of the businesses.

“All of these businesses are, basically, still operating in Queens County, which I thought was really great too,” said Kelly. “The longevity of it all was a really great piece to highlight.”

Until recently, the photos occupied the walls of South Shore Opportunities office.

When that organization downsized their space, the pictures found a new home with the Chamber of Commerce.

Kelly says most of the businesses she profiled aren’t high visibility, main street style enterprises.

South Queens Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Heather Kelly. Photo Ed Halverson

They’re people who have carved a niche in the market and could work from anywhere and choose Queens.

“It just goes to show, you know, being able to work here in Queens County, work remotely, work from home, that sort of thing and they all love doing business here. [It’s a] great place to live, that’s why they’re here,” said Kelly.

She would like to see the excitement created for the businesses and chamber of commerce by the profiles to continue.

“I would love to do this project again, highlight some new businesses and do this type of thing every year on an annual basis.”

Kelly is pleased to say that going forward, the photos will be publicly displayed at Work Evolved on Main Street.

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Photo courtesy Heather Kelly

Retailers in Liverpool hope the festive season will bring shoppers to their doors.

The 4^th annual Christmas in Liverpool Holiday Shopping event will be going ahead Saturday with close to 40 businesses hanging red and green balloons outside their shops to show their participation.

Organizer Heather Kelly said the idea came to her and Brian Fralic when they were both councillors for the Region of Queens.

“It’s kind of meant to bring loads of people downtown,” said Kelly. “Maybe this year will be a little different because of COVID. But hopefully people from other areas will come into town and go shopping.”

Originally, they named the event “Downtown for the Holidays”. But Kelly said she changed it this year as they have now expanded to include businesses throughout Liverpool.

She remembers looking back on Main Street during the first year of the event and thinking how the town must have looked in years past.

“Everybody always thinks about the heyday of Liverpool and when it was really bustling and whatnot,” said Kelly. “But it was a very magical day and we try to recreate that every year but this year’s obviously different.”

Kelly said when people drive through Liverpool they can miss seeing the wide variety of shops and services. That’s why businesses are working together to provide promotions and prizes to get people out of their cars and walking the streets.

“It was, just really to get them to recognize each business and to go through the door. Maybe they might stay, they might buy something but at least they’ve been there. They know where it is, they know what it is and they know what they do,” said Kelly.

Three pop-up shops from the Privateer market will join the established businesses from the new Work Evolved space on Main Street.

Kelly said the event will be offering a prize of a $200 gift card to be used in any of the participating local shops. Ballots are available at many of the locations or by making a donation at the Queens County Food Bank.

She hopes to see the community get out and support their neighbours this weekend.

“Everybody is anxious to get out and do whatever shopping they can do locally and I just want to do my part to drive business through those doors and try to help out those businesses to do as best they can this Christmas,” said Kelly.

The Christmas in Liverpool Holiday shopping event kicks off Saturday morning at 9:00am and runs until approximately 4:00pm. A list of participating merchants is available on the Christmas in Liverpool – Holiday Shopping Event Facebook page.

Reported by Ed Halverson 
E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson