Visitors to Queens Place no longer need to leave the facility to grab a snack.

The Region of Queens has come to terms on a lease with the owner of the Greenfield General Store, Stew Jenkins to operate the canteen.

It officially official opened Thursday November 18.

Jenkins says the canteen will keep regular hours and be open for special events.

“It will be a good place for people to come and have a meal or just a cup of coffee when they’re watching a game or hot chocolate or whatever.”

Jenkins had previously run the canteen and sees this as an opportunity to work together with the Region to serve visitors to the arena.

“There’s room for growth,” said Jenkins. “The last time we were sort of guessing at what we could do but now we’re working together to grow it.”

Jenkins says Joan Murphy will manage the operation, providing a menu of homemade soups and stews as well as hot dogs, hot drinks and snacks.

The municipality has been looking for someone to operate the canteen for months.

Jenkins says after a discussion with Mayor Darlene Norman, things moved quickly.

“This was a whirlwind,” said Jenkins. “We signed the papers Friday and Joan went in on Monday and started cleaning. The food order arrived later that day and [she]started stocking and then Tuesday she did a little bit of trial runs on things.”

Jenkins says Murphy will be hiring a couple of more staff to run the canteen.

He says the advantage of having a business outside of the canteen is he can pull more staff from the Greenfield General Store to help out when busy events are taking place.

“It’s a benefit it gives our staff out here, a couple of them, extra hours where they might be cut back to three or four days a week. Now they can get some part-time work in there as well,” said Jenkins.

Canteen hours and the new menu are available on the Queens Place Emera Centre Facebook page.

E-mail: edhalversonnews@gmail.com
Twitter: @edwardhalverson

To listen to the broadcast of this story, press play below.