Environmentally & Socially Responsible Event Planning * Consulting * Staffing * Catering

What our clients say about us...

  • “You have extraordinary attention to detail. You took care of the little things (like the place setting utensil twine and the food platter you sent up to the girls’ room) that we didn’t even think about. We’d be able to tell future clients to feel confident that everything will be taken of with style, even the things they may not have thought of beforehand.” – John, on his wedding

Friday, October 29, 2010

My visit to Second Harvest

One of the things my mom always impressed upon me is to NEVER EVER waste food.
I grew up listening to my mom constantly telling me about how people back in Philippines would starving to have the amount of food I was fed, growing up in Canada.  This made so much more sense to me when I had a chance to actually plant rice in the rice fields of Japan and coupled with working in the catering industry for over eight years. (As well probably why I ended up being a chubby husky little filipino kid that loved to eat and loved to cook.)  But I digress!


So much food goes to waste in the industry and its one of the main reasons why I designed Simplicity as a triple-bottom line company to address help address this issue.

Part of that plan is ensuring the un-plated food goes to the right place, right away.

This is where Second Harvest comes in!

I recently had a great opportunity to ensure the food donated from John and Emily's wedding went to Second Harvest. I thought that there would be no better way than to deliver it myself!

Guaranteed Delivery!

It was also a golden opportunity to finally connect face to face with Melissa Decic, the Foodraiser with whom I had occasionally spoken to whenever we had a donation to pickup, but I simply never had a chance to meet her until now!

I finally meet Melissa!  At the loading dock for the Second Harvest warehouse

I'm really proud that Simplicity is developing a great connection with Second Harvest.  As you can see, no suit for this visit. It was simply too hot and it was all work! On this visit, our client John and Emily donated over 250 pounds worth of food. What surprised me is how timely our delivery was.  Second Harvest truly needed it because Melissa informed us that during the summer months, very little food is donated and their warehouse was quite bare.

Special thanks to our clients John & Emily for making this possible, and thank you Melissa for the great opportunity to finally meet!

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Nothing beats fresh bread! ... from the local Cobs Bakery!

Its been a while since I've put a lot into the blog.  But I'm back now, I have my voice back and my throat is all better, so I guess the Fall cold is out of the way.   (mumble...grumble, something about "Environmental Allergies"...)

Its been a crazy summer with a lot of things going on and I've done my best to keep you all updated.  Simplicity has been quite busy doing a lot of work in the community, making new friends, meeting new vendors and naturally, meeting new clients!

One of the many great new friends and suppliers for our events has been the local Cobs Bakery located in the Annex!
"Tim" and Emily at the counter

Nothing beats exploring your new neighbourhood by finding what I like to call "the local secrets".  These are of course the best places to be, best prices, local coffee haunts (Rooster is still my favourite!) and of course, places to get good fresh bread. 

I have to really thank the stars for giving me a chance to meet the people that run this particular Cobs Bakery.  The owner Emily is fantastic, engaging and also a fellow entrepreneur.  What I love most is that her passion for bread and running a bread bakery shows through everything, including the great folks she has at the counter.

Not only has Emily been a fantastic new supplier for some of our summer events, but she has also supported Simplicity in our endeavours to help out the communities we are involved with.  (More on these later!)  It is simply fantastic to team up with a socially responsible supplier.

Thank you Emily and thanks to the awesome crew at Cobs Bakery Annex!

Monday, October 25, 2010

More posts to follow.... but first - Its a sad day for Toronto

I haven't posted in a long while and I'm finally on the mend after a big cold.  But first, my honest thoughts on recent news.

I'm really sad about the way my city's election went.  
My city now has an elected mayor that thinks a streetcar is a "traffic congestion", and that bike lanes only should be placed on streets in which the local community wants them.  Never mind the other people across the city or neighbourhoods that actually use them to get where they want to go.  Certainly I didn't vote for him.

I guess we can kiss "TransitCity" project goodbye and less progress in bike lines in my city.

I think its a sad day for my city's potential growth and a sad day for transit riders and bicyclists everywhere in T.O.

That's about it for the personal view point.

Monday, October 4, 2010

Fall Colours, cool wind at my back and an Americano in hand

Ugh,

So it has been a bit since I last posted a blog posting.  Strangely enough it seems more people are reading the blog so I do feel compelled to write a post.  Inspiration has been a bit lacking.  Its down right cold and the winter/fall clothes are still tucked away somewhere after the move.  Today was officially zero degrees (ZERO!) in the city of Toronto, and even with a merino wool sweater I was very cold, especially on a bike!

A lot of things have been happening as we are working to move Simplicity into the "festive holiday season" with dinner party bookings and birthday parties.  I'm already missing the sun and the warmth!  I think the cats have the right idea of sleeping on the radiators... but I digress.

There are a bunch of posts that simply have to come out with a ton of photos.  But for now, I was reading a book that Jasna recommended to me called "Simple Abundance" by Sarah Ban Breathnach and I saw a quote I really do like:

"Simplicity brings with it order, both internally and externally.  A sense of order in our lives brings harmony."

I think that the above quote nicely encapsulates in a different way what Simplicity means to me, and I hope it continues to do this through our events too!  More coming folks.   Let me just find my sweaters!