For over 25 years, Lesley Stowe Find Foods has committed to making delicious high-quality food. While COVID-19 has affected all of us, we remain dedicated to providing food to Canadians during this challenging time.
As an essential service in Canada’s food supply chain, we remain operational and our top priorities continue to be:
- Employee Health and Safety: ensuring a safe work environment for all employees.
- Food Safety and Security: producing safe, delicious food and continuing to operate smoothly.
- Community Support and Safety: supporting communities during the pandemic.
As a food manufacturer, we have a variety of procedures and policies in place to operate smoothly and safely. We continue to follow these procedures, in addition to implementing a number of extra precautionary measures to protect our employees and food.
It is critical that we continue to operate in a manner that prioritizes employee health and safety.
Employee Health and Safety
- There are now screeners at all employee entrances to ask key questions as a reminder that if you are feeling unwell you must not come to work.
- We are enhancing social distancing in the factories, positioning employee work areas at least 2m apart where possible, or installing dividers or shielding where physical separation is not possible.
- We are working to enhance separation between incoming and outgoing shifts in the factories, either through staggering finish and start timing, or better managing traffic flow.
- We have enhanced cleaning and sanitizing protocols.
- All head office employees who can work from home now are.
- Almost all meetings are conducted virtually.
- Nearly all business travel has stopped.
- Outside visitors are restricted where possible.
- Information is circulated to employees on a regular basis as updates become available.
Food Safety
According to the CFIA (Canadian Food Inspection Agency), “there is currently no evidence that food is a likely source or route of transmission of COVID-19.”1 We continue to monitor recommendations from the CFIA, World Health Organization and others to ensure we are up-to-date on the latest information.
Lesley Stowe Fine Foods continues to adhere to rigorous food safety requirements including strong sanitation and hygiene requirements. We continue to meet the needs of our consumers and we sincerely thank all our employees for their tremendous efforts in helping us move forward in these difficult times.
For the latest and most up-to-date information on COVID-19 from the CFIA and the Government of Canada, visit https://www.inspection.gc.ca/covid-19/ or www.canada.ca/coronavirus.
Community Support and Safety
Lesley Stowe Fine Foods understands this is a difficult time, affecting all of us in different ways. As a family company, it’s always been important to support our local communities. Lesley Stowe Fine Foods recognizes how fortunate we are and as the global COVID-19 pandemic continues, we will be supporting our communities in both Canada and the United States.
We ask for everyone’s support and remind you of the following:
- Protect yourself. Traditional common-sense precautions are critical. Wash your hands frequently. Sneeze into your elbow or a tissue that you immediately discard. Avoid contact with individuals who are unwell.
- Observe social distancing. Always maintain a distance of 2 metres or 6 feet between yourself and others to avoid the transmission of illnesses.
- If you are feeling unwell, do not go to work.
- Never engage in any activity that puts you at risk.
We ask everyone to remember that maintaining healthy practices gives everyone the best chance to stay safe and well.
We will continue to follow guidance from government sources to adjust our policies and procedures as needed to ensure the safety of our employees, products and community. Always reference reliable sources: World Health Organization website www.who.int, Infection Prevention and Control Canada www.ipac-canada.org, the Centers for Disease Control www.cdc.gov and the Government of Canada www.Canada.ca for the latest information.
Updated: April 16, 2020
1Government of Canada, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): CFIA information for industry 2020. https://www.inspection.gc.ca/covid-19/ Accessed on April 15, 2020.
