It’s a simple way to do something nice for hospital staff while also providing a little bit of support for the Boundary Trails Health Centre Foundation.
Food Truck Days are being held at the hospital on a number of days this summer, and Superior Smash and The Icycle were on hand there for the first one last Wednesday.
The initiative came about through working with BTHC’s wellness committee.
“We’re looking for ways to help support the staff here,” said Shannon Samatte-Folkett, executive director of the BTHC Foundation.
“We came up with the idea that we would have a food truck day once a week throughout the summer. It’s just to kind of change things up for staff and their lunches, and 10 per cent of the proceeds will go to the foundation to support different staff initiatives.”
Mike Sumner, owner of The Icycle, likes to be part of community events such as the humane society’s Steps for Pets or Eden’s Tractor Trek.
“We’ve done a few events like this now this year where we’ve gone out, and it’s been part of a fundraiser … so we’ve said we would contribute part of our sales,” he said. “We’re certainly a very community-oriented type of business, and we are quite happy to give back to the community as well … we’re happy to share.
“It’s nice … and we get people young and old, but sometimes the older ones are more excited than the younger ones because they remember [ice cream bicycles] from when they were kids, so there’s that aspect of nostalgia in what we do.”
“It’s meant to be fun and just get you outside, grab a bite to eat and even stand around and talk to each other,” said Samatte-Folkett. “It’s supporting the staff, and when they go and buy something, they’re putting back some funds to different things for them in the hospital.
“And it’s open to the public, so the public can come and then they also are supporting the amazing staff that we have there.”
There are vendors lined for a few Wednesdays in the coming weeks. This week, July 24, has Sixteen13 Ministry and the Icycle on hand. July 31 will feature 2Bros Smash Burgers followed on Aug. 14 with Superior Smash Burgers
“It’s the first time we’ve done this, so we weren’t sure of the numbers for the trucks when they signed up,” said Samatte-Folkett. “It looks like it may be popular. There were a lot of people out there grabbing treats, and we hope that continues week after week.”
