Norris and Janine McNabb, residents of Oak Lake Beach, started up a food service just a couple of months ago. They’ve been very pleased with the orders from customers wanting fresh, homemade products.
“We started up our business in the town of Oak Lake and rent the Community Centre on scheduled days,” says Janine. The community centre kitchen was completed just recently with the hope that it could provide a just this kind of work space for local entrepreneurs. For a modest daily rate, this kitchen is well equipped for McNabb’s food service.
“We’ve had a lot of comments from people in the community saying they’re glad people are using the new kitchen.”
The couple launched out just before Christmas.
“Norris and I wanted to find something we could do together, so we decided to start making foods that we could freeze.”
Janine (nee’ Stonehouse) grew up in the Virden community. “Most of the recipes I use are ones that my mom had, and our family always enjoyed the food, so we continued with those specific ingredients.”
However, Janine also spent some years in Thompson where she learned to create 1000 egg rolls per week. In fact, you will find Asian cooking is also a menu item.
The McNabb’s need to acquire their health permit ten days in advance to be able to have the go ahead to prepare their customer requested foods. “We have to know exactly what we need to be cooking and people put their orders in and pick up their baked or cooked goods up at the hall,” adds Janine.
They also deliver their products to some areas which include Virden, Miniota and Hamiota, and some orders go further afield.
“We have people from Brandon come out and pick up orders,” states Janine. “We even make trips to Winnipeg with orders and from there [and] pick up our supplies from our wholesaler.”
The McNabbs hope to operate year-round.
“Our menu will more than likely change from month to month with some products such as perogies being a standard every month.”
As of now soups, cabbage rolls, pizza pops, egg rolls, and perogies are some of the main purchases.
“Our customers let us know what they are interested in and we try and accommodate them,” says Janine. “We have been thinking about doing this for a while, and thought if we were going to do it … we might as well do it. We decided if we can do well on sales, we will continue supplying our customers with our products.”
Norris and Janine will be busy at the Oak Lake Community Hall kitchen from Jan.19-22.
Norris & Janine McNabb’s Kitchen is on Facebook, displaying the products they supply and the dates they will be operating their commercial kitchen.
