Putting food on the table isn’t easy for many Ottawa-area families grappling with the financial impacts of the pandemic, and now some organizations are shifting their efforts to help those most in need.
Author of the article: Peter Hum
Publishing date: Apr 27, 2021 • 2 hours ago • 5 minute read • Noor Food Market general manager Nadin Kara donated a food basket, similar to the one shown, to a woman who appealed to several Ottawa food businesses this month looking for handouts. Tuesday, Apr. 27, 2021. Photo by Errol McGihon /Errol McGihon
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Ottawa’s restaurants were alerted this week about an alleged scam after a woman repeatedly pleaded poverty and requested free food and meals for herself and her boyfriend through social media messages.
The woman’s appeals to restaurants from Kanata to Riverside South to downtown were first publicized Sunday on a Facebook page for Ottawa’s food and beverage industry. By Monday morning, Ottawa’s business improvement areas were notified about what Michelle Groulx, executive director of the Ottawa Coalition of BIAs, alleged is “a restaurant free food scam.”