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Burgers and specialty sausages on a charcoal barbecue – not your typical meal at a remote mine site, but the one served on July 6 was not your typical lunch.

That afternoon, the catering contractor at Victor Mine served its two millionth meal.

Attawapiskat Catering Limited Partnership, the 100 per cent Attawapiskat First Nation-owned catering and hospitality company has held the contract at Victor Mine since February 2011.

ACLP leadership, staff and employees and the Victor Mine Team celebrated the milestone with a special meal and guests including their ACLP CEO Bob Dickson, and the first ever visit from Chief Ignace Gull (pictured above) from the Attawapiskat First Nation.

“We are extremely proud of the contributions that the staff at ACLP have made to the high quality of meals and service provided at Victor Mine,” said Bob.  “We are also grateful for the excellent partnership we have had over the last number of years with Outland Camps.”

Outland is a sub-contractor which provides support such as administration, payroll and supply chain for ACLP.

Al Collins, Victor Mine Superintendent of Protective Services, Site Services and Camp Operations was honored to be present during this celebration.  “We are very proud to have such a strong and effective partnership with ACLP here at Victor Mine.  This relationship is effective due to ACLP’s commitment to De Beers Canada’s safety culture and their consistent effort to provide a superior catering product. Their product delivery helps to ensure that employee rotations at Victor Mine is “Home away from Home.” 

There are 12 employees working in the kitchen on each two-week rotation. Each rotation includes three cooks, one second cook, one breakfast cook, one baker and four serving line staff. These employees serve on average 500 meals per day, with breakfast starting at 4:30 AM and supper ending at 8:30 PM. There are employees working through the night to prepare breakfast and preparation for supper starts early, at 8:30 AM. Food is brought into the mine site twice weekly to keep the kitchen stocked to serve employees in what’s called the KDR (kitchen/dining room), which holds seating for 116.

Here are some interesting facts about the catering team at Victor Mine:

• 150 dozen eggs used weekly – close to 80,000 dozen eggs used over the past seven years!
• 70 kg of bacon, 175 kg of beef and 100 kg of chicken on a weekly basis
• 120 loaves of bread consumed each week
• 300 kg of fresh fruit each week which includes honey dew melons and cantaloupes
• 80 litres of soft serve ice cream and 60 litres of hard ice cream weekly
• A soft serve ice cream machine came to site 3 years ago
• Cooks need a 125 gallon pot to make soup