In each province and territory across the country, restaurant associations work to understand, connect with, and support restaurants in their communities—restaurants like yours.
And at Skip, we are building relationships with these associations. Why? To better understand the ground-level challenges in your area, to help connect you with more customers, and to exchange insights and ideas. This has never been more important than in the past two years, as restaurants have faced endless challenges.
So, what do our partnerships with restaurant associations look like? Here are a few things we’ve been working on.
Skip + Manitoba Restaurant & Foodservices Association.
We have been working to build our relationship with the Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association (MRFA) over the past few years. In fact, Loraine Nyokong, our Director of Restaurant Success, is a member of the MRFA Board and works very closely with the association.
Our collaborative partnership with the MRFA has allowed us to support events like the MRFA Golf Tournament and Trade Show, as well as the MRFA publication. And through sharing of knowledge between Skip and the MRFA, they were able to secure funding for a subsidy program created to support local restaurants over the course of the pandemic.
We are also proud to help them achieve one of their key objectives: to lobby government and other regulatory bodies on issues affecting you and your business. In particular, the MFRA was urging the provincial government to revise laws that restricted the delivery of alcohol. As this helps our restaurant partners increase their bottom line, we were happy to help them with their efforts.
Skip + Association Restauration Québec.
Another great example is our work with the Association Restauration Québec (ARQ). Together, we created two successful partnership programs in 2021 alone.
The first, Le collectif, was a contest open to all ARQ members, with Skip as the presenting sponsor. The goal was to honour and reward restaurant teams that demonstrated innovative efforts and commitment during the pandemic. The contest was a big success with nearly 100 restaurants entering. In the end, three winners received $2000 each to support their businesses and staff.
The next was a podcast series entitled HRI Balados x ARQ with Skip as the presenting sponsor. In each episode, chefs from across Québec and Europe are invited to talk about a new age of opening and running a successful restaurant. So far, it’s been a hit and we plan to continue producing future episodes.
And we’re just getting started.
There is much more in the works. Skip has been initiating conversations and partnerships with other associations across the country. Stay tuned for more!
