Front-of-house workers, although masked, have to handle half-finished food and talk to customers, who are unmasked and eating. Tostenson, whose association helped create a reopening plan for dine-in services back in April, says the effort has been a success, but everyone working in the industry still faces a high level of risk. By immunizing these front-line workers, we are making workplaces and communities throughout our province safer.” “Many of these people have come to work throughout this pandemic, continuing to teach and care for our children, stock the shelves of our local grocery store and keep our communities safe. “We know how challenging this pandemic has been on our front-line workers,” said Premier John Horgan. All adults in the province will have a vaccination available to them before July 1, the province said. On Thursday, the province announced grocery store workers, teachers, postal workers and others will get the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine sometime in April. It does not store any personal data.By Cloe Logan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National ObserverĪs British Columbia continues to map out who is next in line to receive the COVID-19 vaccine, restaurant and food service workers are still showing up to work, handling dirty dishes and speaking to maskless patrons in an enclosed environment.Īnd that’s why Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association, has put out a request to the province for food service workers to be included in the vaccine rollout plan. The cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance". This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". The cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional". The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics". These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. NPD found that online and physical visits to restaurants during the breakfast and AM snack period increased by 7% in the year ending September 2021 compared to a year ago when visits declined by 13%, but the daypart is still 7% below the pre-pandemic period of year ending September 2019. Morning meal is also recovering, according to The NPD Group. “The more a restaurant can offer convenience, speed, and quality food during lunch, the more they will attract customers.” “In order to attract during lunchtime with much of the population still working from home, restaurants need to offer convenience to consumers, and at lunch, it’s about saving time,” Kim McLynn, executive director, The NPD Group, told The Food Institute. However, QSR lunch visits haven’t fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels and in the year ending September 2021 are still down -12% from the same period in 2019. Lunch orders increased 4% in the period compared to same period year ago when visits were down 9%. Quick service restaurants (QSR), which represented 79% of lunch restaurant orders in the year ending September, are benefiting from the lunchtime rebound. Easily transported categories, like packaged lunch and snack kits, are positioned to do well through 2024, while consumers will also look to retail for ready-to-eat foods for convenient lunches. With workplaces starting to reopen, consumers have also returned to convenient ways to prepare or source lunch.
Against this backdrop, restaurant lunch visits are now forecast to grow by double-digits through 2024, according to NPD’s Future of Lunch study. Though lunch traffic hasn’t fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels, down 8% from September 2019, the increase is a significant improvement over the double-digit declines seen in 2020. “Consumers are on-the-go now, and the lunch rush is coming back,” said NPD Group food and beverage industry analyst Darren Seifer in a press release. Online and physical restaurant visits during lunch rose 4% in the year ending September 2021 compared to a year ago when visits were down 11%, based on The NPD Group’s U.S.