kevin burgin
Alright, so Hey. Welcome again to the main ingredient. .
Leane Helane
Thank you for having me again.
kevin burgin
No problem. Are you still doing Winnipeg supper club?
Leane Helane
I am. I am. Yes.
kevin burgin
Maybe you can explain to people what Winnipeg Supper Club.
Leane Helane
a good way to describe it is a culinary events company. So I tried to create unique dining experiences using various chefs and locations around the city.
kevin burgin
So how did you get into that? Its kind of a different spin on the culinary scene?
Leane Helane
Pretty much. It started about five years ago, just as a labor of love with a few friends. And the first event went off really well. And I kind of discovered as like, Well, I think we’re actually onto something here. And then it’s just kind of grown slowly through word of mouth. And more and more chefs interested in working together all the time. And now I’m trying to take it into more of a kind of a professional direction, I have a new business partner. What our goal is to turn the pig supper club into an events company that specializes in fundraising for not for profits based culinary events, and engaging their donors and giving them a new experience and just kind of maybe stepping in where the big gala’s are kind of starting to fall off. So more unique experiences.
kevin burgin
Right so two-fold. Having a great experience, a different great experience while maybe raising money for some sort of charity.
Leane Helane
exactly right.
kevin burgin
Yeah, I get it. I understand. Hey, that’s what we’re here for right now. Art and snacks. So what is it
Leane Helane
Art & Snacks is an afternoon fundraiser in support of Main Street Project which I’ve been involved with for just over a year now. The concept is the art part. There’s a lot of talented clients of Main Street project. I’ve seen them sketching when I’m volunteering there. So I thought it’d be interesting to have, you know, get them a little bit involved in a project. There’s hopefully going to be an art auction with some pieces that have been created by the clients. The snacks part is I’ve got eight, possibly nine chefs on board recreating their own version of what we call they’re guilty pleasure, kind of their junk food. You know, what they eat after a long shift at two in the morning that a lot of people don’t actually know that chefs love Kraft Dinner and pizza and tequitos and that sort of thing.
kevin burgin
Everybody pictures a chef making himself the, you know, the ultimate meal and whatever the guy’s been working for, like, God knows how long you need something quick, just like everybody else.
Leane Helane
I lived beside a group of chefs from the Mitchell block and I remember the pizza boxes stacked outside their apartment.
kevin burgin
My dad was a mechanic. And it’s funny, because his car was always the worst car. He always kept it up enough so that you drove and my mom would have a new car. But he didn’t care about that right?
Leane Helane
Yeah, exactly.
kevin burgin
It’s kind of funny. The Main Street Project for those who don’t know what it is, maybe you can give me a little background on that.
Leane Helane
Okay. Main Street Project is a kind of all encompassing organization downtown, they have drop in shelter, they have overnight facilities, they have detox for men and for women. And right now, what’s going on with Main Street is they’ve purchased a building on actually Main Street, the old Mitchell fabrics building and there’s a big capital campaign going to raise money to create shelter with I believe in extra 80 beds. Safe injection site, because mainstream project as it stands right now is pretty full on a daily basis. So they’re looking to expand. It’s at capacity. A lot of the time again, I’m not I don’t want to speak too much on behalf of me, because I’m a volunteer there. But anybody can access Main Street Project. So with some of the shelters, they have some rules where you need to be sober to show up, which makes a lot of sense. But Main Street Project does not turn anyone away, unless it is a legitimate safety concern, or their full Clare Snowballl, her and I have started another element to it, where we go to a cafeteria once a week to pick up all the food that’s left at the end of the week. And then we bring it to Main Street project. So we’re just trying to start kind of a chain reaction where a few more people who are creating extra food on a weekly basis are starting to bring it to Main Street or two very shelters that could definitely make use of it, rather than going in the garbage can.
kevin burgin
Because collectively that could do a lot of good
Leane Helane
a lot. There is a lot of, I don’t like to call it catering waste, because catering is a tricky equation in terms of math and quantity. So I just like to call it extras. And the city is full of extras. So I would like to see it going to the thousands of hungry people that we have, there’s no reason for hungry people to be in Winnipeg,
kevin burgin
For sure. It would be nice if that was like common knowledge for caterers, restaurants, grocery stores, that knew that you have extra, that’s where it goes.
Leane Helane
And I think there’s still a common misconception that a lot of shelters won’t take it. That’s a very outdated way of thinking. I’m not exactly sure what rules have changed in order to make it easier. But that’s pretty much really my motivating factor with Main Street Project because I’ve seen I’ve seen the faces of the folks when we show up when Claire and I, they call us the burrito ladies, I’m not even sure why we’ve never dropped up burritos. But every time you go there they’re so kind and they’re so grateful. And, you know, they don’t see it as they see it as a meal that somebody actually cared enough to feed.
kevin burgin
Okay, Let’s talk about the chefs that are participating art and snacks.
Leane Helane
Okay, so we have Claire Snowball of Red River, Ben Kramer, everyone knows Ben, Pam Kirkpatrick from Fourth who also started Cakeology back in the day. Mike Wispanske from Crab Apple tree and also the Mitchell block, Khoa House.
kevin burgin
Oh, yeah. Randy
Leane Helane
Randy, and Korene, Rachel who is not practicing her chef’ing at the time, but she’s a former chef and as a teacher at mmf I want to say, Loaf & Honey…I assume their’s will be with cheese
kevin burgin
They came here and filled this whole table with food.
Leane Helane
they’re incredible. Harth restaurant. And I got a message from Mandel Hitser. Obviously Deer and Almond.
kevin burgin
So it’s pretty solid lineup for sure.
kevin burgin
How, how did you round everybody up? How did you sell everybody on the idea?
Leane Helane
It’s not a hard sell. I feel like since the culinary community start talking about Main Street Project everyone is very good hearted and wants to feed people.
kevin burgin
All the people that you named you’d just have to literally just bring it up. And they would ask you where and when
Leane Helane
Yeah, it’s a tricky time of year because it’s right before Christmas. So some who wanted to participate just simply can’t. But yeah, eight people came on board pretty quickly.
kevin burgin
So how did the artists idea come up?
Leane Helane
Um, well, I really like to engage the clients of Main Street Project. Not only is it well, it’s a sense of pride for them. I talked to one of the gentlemen who I’ve seen sketching and I said, Would this be of interest to you? And his eyes lit up? And he was like, absolutely, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. So art and snacks. there’s a lot of talented folks, I’ve seen sketching on cardboard, or just found objects. So it was just an added element to engage some of the clients and, you know, give them a little source of pride. they won’t be at the event, but their work will be represented.
kevin burgin
Let’s talk about the the facility. Nonsuch Brewery, how did you bring them on board? And why did you choose that?
Leane Helane
Well, there, first of all, they’re located about five minutes from Main Street Project. So it was a fairly logical ask, you know, and they also have a beautiful venue.
kevin burgin
Been there once or twice?
kevin burgin
Yeah, yeah…And I’ve met the guys before working, where I work they’ve come in, and quite frankly, they have a full kitchen. They’re closed on Sundays, and they were extremely gung ho from the first second I even brought it up. Yeah, it’s a win win. And they’re throwing in the space for free and staff.
kevin burgin
Okay. So let’s tell people, the date, the time How do they get tickets? How much of the tickets what they get for their tickets?
Leane Helane
So it’s December the 16th, Sunday from two till five children are allowed. We have a set number for the amount of kids who come just before we hit capacity.
Leane Helane
Tickets are 25 dollars, you can find them on Eventbrite. So a majority. What I should also mention is the majority of the chefs are donating their time and the ingredients. I really wanted this to be an accessible event. So $25, you can go to Eventbrite. com, and search art and snacks or on any social media. Anyone who’s involved in the event who have mentioned has a post on Instagram somewhere with the link or just go to the Winnipeg supper club, Instagram and the link is there
kevin burgin
I’ll make sure we put on our link to right.
Leane Helane
Cool.
kevin burgin
Thanks for coming, buddy.
Leane Helane
Thanks.