Looking for a delicious lunch option?
Something Beautiful Café will be serving up a tasty midday meal on Wednesday, Oct. 23 in honour of Disability Employment Awareness Month (DEAM).
Between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., Community Living Interlake staff will greet and seat lunch customers for the special event.
Community Living Interlake supports individuals who live with intellectual disabilities to live a fully inclusive life as members of the community. The non-profit organization operates Something Beautiful as a social enterprise that provides job experience and valuable skills for clients.
Charlotte Gauthier, day program manager, encourages everyone to come out for much-anticipated meal.
“The DEAM Day Lunch is an opportunity for the individuals of Community Living Interlake to demonstrate their skills and abilities in the community,” she said.
“We encourage all community members to stop by Something Beautiful Café and Gift Shop and support the individuals who work in our community.”
Disability Employment Awareness Month presents an important opportunity to discuss, explore and collaborate to solve critical issues.
“For the month of October, we will celebrate the tremendous contributions people with disabilities make to our workplaces and communities,” she said.
“We invite everyone to connect with us, create awareness and help us to eliminate the barriers that prevent individuals with disabilities from participating fully in work and society.”
At the same time, Gauthier outlines the benefits of bolstering diversity in businesses.
“There are many benefits to increasing the diversity of your business and tapping into a qualified and underutilized talent pool of potential employees,” she said.
“There are 645,000 Canadians who live with a disability and are ready, willing and able to work. Increasing accessibility is more important now than ever before as it will be the way forward as we work toward meeting the increasing labour market demands.”
For the Oct. 23 DEAM Day Lunch, customers have the option to dine in or take out by pre-order, and walk-in dining is also welcome.
Three menu options are available for $22 each: the DEAM burger (a seven-ounce chuck or brisket burger topped with cheddar and fried onions or homemade chili), a roast turkey sandwich (in-house roasted turkey with lettuce, tomato and pesto mayo on fresh ciabatta) or the ultimate grilled cheese (thick-cut sourdough bread buttered and grilled with a creamy four-cheese blend and served with spicy ketchup). All three options are served with chips and a pop or coffee.
To place a pre-order for dine-in or pick-up, call 204-467-9620 or visit www.stonewallsomethingbeautiful.com.
In addition to the DEAM Day Lunch, another initiative this month is called Light It Up, which started in Ontario five years ago and has since spread across the country.
“This coast-to-coast collaboration illuminates the nation purple and blue for one night, spotlighting disability inclusive employment,” Gauthier said.
“Our goal is to have as many business possible to light up their business purple or blue for one night every October.”
This year, Light It Up brightened streets in shades of blue and purple from Oct. 17 at 4 p.m. to Oct. 18 at 7 a.m.
