Regina’s catering businesses have not seen as much activity this summer due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beata Kowalski with Fresh and Sweet said her catering business Valley Girls Catering received multiple phone calls and emails for cancellations and reschedules once COVID-19 arrived in Saskatchewan for the first time back in mid-March.

“It was just constant cancelling literally everything, and I understood that it was going to happen,” remembered Kowalski. “Catering business is pretty slim. There’s not a lot happening right now.”

Public health measures from the province limited the number of people that could be at gatherings such as weddings and other events in order to reduce the risk of spreading the virus among groups of people.

It resulted in events either being cancelled altogether or moved to a future date. Some decided to go ahead with their gatherings and made difficult choices to cut their list of guests so that it could fit under provincial guidelines.

Kowalski said they have a few events to cater this summer, but it isn’t what it was before the pandemic hit. They have a total of four catering dates this summer and one pending in September, depending on the province’s COVID-19 status by then.

While it’s tough times for business now, Kowalski is confident that things will return to normal and that they need to keep trucking on.

“We know that it will come back and the situation will change,” “It’s very interesting now because we would have a board full of caterings. But now we are so excited to do our one beautiful, precious catering.”

Kowalski mentioned there were some days when they would have 10 to 15 lunch caterings a day, but now they see an average of four per week.