What Happened After Mansons Hall Closed Its Doors?

It has been almost two months since Mansons Hall closed its doors to the public and laid off staff. The Southern Cortes Community Association (SCCA), which runs the hall, applied for the 75% wage subsidy to help pay the office manager. The office remained open to work on administrative tasks such as year end financials and respond to inquiries (like the email I sent them). Tenants continued to visit their spaces and the office manager took over the building’s cleaning duties for the next month. 

Food Bank

Anyone listening to Cortes Island’s virtual community meetings is aware that the SCCA also enables the Cortes Food Bank to function. 

Hall Manager Mary Lavelle, gave an update, “The food bank has one donor giving $3000 over 3 months, and is willing to match funds if we find another donor. Samantha says there has been an increase in hampers going out, but not overwhelming. Samantha is giving out hampers that include a voucher to purchase fresh food. We are working on a voucher system with the farmers who will be at the market. To date we have $6000 in donations (another $2000 promised). There is a grant for food bank money that I am looking into to see if we can fulfill all the requirements.”

Volunteers At The Hall

Several people have recently come forward to help out at the hall: 

  • A volunteer pulled all the nails and screws out of the walls in the main hall.
  • Another is going to help one of the board members paint the sun on the side of the building
  • Three volunteers are willing to do some work on the front garden.

Friday Market Starting

The big news is that Mansons Friday Market will soon reopen

“We thought of starting early May, but it seemed too soon to staff and vendors. The farms will be ready with some fresh produce at the end of May or early June. We are needing to put COVID practices in place, and would prefer to have the market outside,” said Lavelle.

With things returning to near normal, the cleaner and market manager are starting to work some hours again.

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