Instead of closing the school canteen, he found another outlet and continued his activity: offering dishes for a couple of euros in the capital.

Natalija – Director of Catering Projects Namų dvasia at the UAB. She says the company has been catering to Riešė gym for the second year in a row, where 9 employees work, but this is not the only place where they work. The company also serves more schools both in the capital and in Kaišiadorys.

Although students, according to the director, are usually the main customers of the Riešė canteen, today the situation is somewhat different: pandemics and distance education have emptied the corridors of the school, and the preparatory students who eat lunch at the school are they can count on two fingers.

According to the director, at the very beginning of the pandemic, in March, the dining room had closed its doors and was not working, all the workers were at rest, and it was only in the summer that work was resumed.

“We prepare food for the campers as well as for personal celebrations. We turned around when we left. When they invited us, we tried not to respond to people. And all the fun already started in the fall, ”he said.

“The school year began, its beginning was quite normal, like everyone else, but then distance education appeared.

Some students studied at school, some already at home. We then calculated that our billing dropped by 30 to 40 percent. and we came up with the need to do something and offer dishes to a wider audience, “he said.

Instead of closing its doors again, the canteen now offers take-out food, and its customers are both residents of the Riešė district and employees of nearby businesses.

When asked if it is really worth working and offering takeout rather than shutting down and going out of business altogether, Natalia said that to this day, the new activity is more about maneuvering at the zero limit.

“Income depends on survival.” In total, the company employs 25 people, with two-thirds currently in full downtime and the remaining third in partial downtime. Now there are 4 employees in Riešė ”, said the director and said that the company uses the subsidies offered by the state to employees for relief measures.

“A person who received 600 euros in their hands, can feel bold and secure in today’s downtime,” he said.

According to the manager, there is no shortage of customers for the dining room today. He has his own Facebook page where he publishes the menu of the day, and he also finds customers through the Wrist Community page, where he publishes another publication.

“It turns out that many people did not know that they could order food to take with us, not even the parents themselves knew that they could come and pick it up. This is how the circle of customers increased.

Now it is still convenient for us to work and at least have an income. And we still have some kids in school, maybe ten, they’re preschoolers. We have to feed them anyway. That is all we need to go to work. Of course, we could get out of the situation and bring food from another place, from other production facilities, but we decided to continue operating because a circle of customers appeared and it is not clear how long this period will last when we begin to breathe normally again, ”said Natalija.

The order in the canteen, as they say, is the same as everywhere: you need to call the specified number, order a meal and come to pick it up.

The director revealed that the pandemic and the takeout offering had forced the company to stretch, and a new food packaging machine was purchased in which the lid of the jar is sealed.

“It paid very well,” he said, referring to food prices.

“We have raised takeout prices a bit. For the school community, they are slightly different and lower, but the sales volume also varied.

If before the child had a carbonate price of 2 EUR, now it is 2.3 EUR for take away. Of course, keep in mind that portion sizes vary as well. For children, they are a little smaller, ”said the manager.

Now, as stated, Wrist Canteen sells around 100 servings of meals a day, 10 of which are children’s food at school, and 90 servings are given away.

“So we have had to talk to suppliers, managers, some cafes in the city center that serve lunch of the day, they don’t sell as much, but I think that in this place we win with the prices, we can offer them better,” said Natalia.

As advertised on the company’s Facebook page, the pea soup in the canteen costs 0.4 EUR, the chicken cutlet – 2.3 EUR, zeppelins, served with crackling sauce – 2.4 EUR, pancakes with curd , served with berry puree / sour cream – 2.5 Eur, and boiled pork tongue with horseradish-mustard sauce – 2.8 Eur.