As the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association are on pause due to the coronavirus, the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto (home of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors) is being used for a large kitchen. Where there is normally ice or hardwood, the arena is now being used to provide meals for people staying in homeless shelters and frontline healthcare workers according to the Associated Press on Thursday.
The program is being organized by Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment, the owners of the Maple Leafs and Raptors. The attempt at this time is to prepare 10,000 meals per day for five days a week until through June. In all, that will be approximately half a million meals. Some of the meals to date have included chili and rice as well as chicken legs with jerk marinade.
The province of Ontario has been hammered by coronavirus. There are currently 11, 390 cases, and 1,176 deaths in Canada’s largest province. On Friday, Sharon Roberts, a healthcare worker at the Downsview Long Term Care Centre in North York, Ontario, died at the age of 59. There have now been four healthcare workers who have died in Ontario because of coronavirus. As a result, the Ontario Public Service Employees Union is calling for better protection of healthcare staff.
