It’s been an extraordinary year in Christchurch since Cantabrians were shaken from their beds on September 4, 2010 – followed by thousands of aftershocks, lost lives, shattered homes and businesses. People in Christchurch’s food, beverage and hospitality industries have shown incredible strength, and support for each other through these exceptionally challenging times – here’s three inspiring stories from Garden city-based Linda Bennett.

Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology (CPIT)

Managing and tutoring cookery and hospitality courses takes drive, and commitment, in an ordinary year. But add to that natural disasters that took the city’s CBD and put hundreds of hospitality operations out of action, along with halting courses for weeks, and you’ve certainly been thrown a curveball.

But Mike Meaclem, Dennis Taylor and the team at CPIT’s School of Food & Hospitality have boxed on through this turbulent year in the Garden City – buoyed by the amazing resilience of their students.

Enterprise manager and bakery tutor Mike Meaclem says the students have stayed committed and focused on finishing their qualifications.

“They’ve been very wonderful, so flexible. They can see the light at the end of the tunnel, that there will be lots of opportunities for them.”

Dennis Taylor, programme leader of Professional Cookery Studies, says he believes the students that have stuck it out are better as a result.

“They’ve found their own inner-strength and refocused on what’s important.”

CPIT’s food programmes were out of the building for six weeks after the February quake – taking a huge chunk out of course time. For tutors, this has meant a heap of re-timetabling, and looking hard at the programmes to determine what’s critical, and what becomes secondary.

One of the biggest headaches for the school has become visits and work placements.

“Visits were always a key part of the programme,” Taylor says, “They established contact with the industry, and gave students the opportunity to see inside workplaces.

“Most of our loyal supporters for work placements were in the central city. Larger hotels like The Crowne Plaza were always fully supportive, and we now don’t have access to those resources. That’s one area we need to rethink, it’s temporary but we don’t know for how long, we think we may still be in this situation for the majority of 2012.”

On the good news side of things, bakery and cookery students will be graduating just when the city will hopefully be up and running again, Taylor says.

“They’ll be best poised to go into an industry that will be set to take off.”

Fortunately Meaclem’s business of 25 years, The Hillmorton Bakery, escaped the quakes with very minor damage. But as a member of the Executive of The Baking Industry Association, he’s seen the immense challenges other Christchurch bakers have faced in the last 12 months.

“There’s been so many bakeries lost to damage, and the red zone. Ones that could still operate, had the initial issues with sourcing ingredients, and hygiene issues with the water supply being compromised.”

He says it’s been interesting seeing the role food has played in Canterbury in the past year.

“It’s the whole comfort food, bakeries and cafes are getting run off their feet with people wanting a pie and a bun.”

Taylor believes the student’s experiences in the last 12 months will set them up perfectly for a career in food and hospitality.

“This is all great training for coping with the unexpected, because that’s what the industry is all about anyway. We would hope that from this point in time, there will be a whole group of people out there who will say, we can cope, because we’ve coped with a whole lot worse in our time than customers coming in late for a table.”

Copenhagen Bakery

When Copenhagen Bakery in Christchurch’s Armagh Street had to close for two days following the September 4 earthquake, it was the longest owners John and Donna Thomsen had ever been out of business in 24 years of operation.

The team at the hugely successful central city bakery at the bottom of the multi-storey Price Waterhouse Cooper building got straight back into it, with people literally banging on the door for them to reopen for ‘European and Scandinavian tastes, with a Kiwi feel’.

Never in their wildest dreams did they imagine what was to strike on February 22. Hitting at 12:51pm on a Tuesday, the quake struck the bakery at its busiest time, with a packed café area, and a queue out the door for takeaway items. Donna immediately sprung into action, her training as a registered nurse coming into play as she stood in the doorway shouting for people to stay inside to protect them from falling sheets of glass and liquefaction spouting up like a geyser.

After locking up the shop and making sure customers and staff were safely evacuated to nearby Victoria Square, Donna headed for the collapsed PGC Building nearby, where she stayed until late that evening helping with first aid. At one point, she went back to the bakery with a fireman and policeman, and loaded up a vehicle with food to take back to the PGC site.

“People coming out of the building, and the rescue crews had nothing to eat, most people didn’t even get to have lunch that day.”

They are grateful no one was in their Bromley-based bakehouse at the time of the quake, with tonnes of heavy equipment moving up to two metres.

When it became apparent that the bakery wasn’t going to be open again for a very long time, John and Donna had to let their 13 staff go – the toughest aspect thing they’ve faced.

“We had a well-tuned machine there with great staff, and all of a sudden that was pulled out from underneath us. They’ve since been snapped up by other businesses,” she says.

The couple have always been very hands on, with John baking (named New Zealand Baker of the Year in 2005), and Donna on the shop floor each day over nearly quarter of a century in the bakery business.

“If you don’t show an interest or passion, that’s where businesses fail. You have to have the passion and enjoy the challenge of trying to do everything well, and continue to enjoy what you do,” Donna says.

When the mission to find a new shop site began soon after February 22, the pair found themselves driving around for eight hours a day looking for something suitable – not an easy ask when demand for commercial space was sky high.

They have a distinct vision for what they want to do – along the lines of a local corner patisserie shop, as you see in Europe.

“We’ve had no retail shop for five months now, and we’re itching to get going again, and people have been emailing us and phoning us at home asking when we will be back,” Donna says.

Along with the endless amounts of red-tape to work through with council zoning and consents, the pair also face the prospect of taking on debt to start up – frightening after running a thriving, mortgage-free business prior to the quake.

“It’s a huge risk,” she says.

For 51-year-old John, being idle for many months has hit hard, given he started working as a baker in Denmark when he was 16. And he misses baking. “You get so much joy out of producing things,” he says.

But the pair remains amazingly upbeat.

“We have to be positive, we enjoy what we do, and people like our food, so that keeps us going. We are ready for the next challenge.” Donna says. Watch this space!

Bean Scene

The February 22 earthquake also halted another bustling Armagh Street business – Bean Scene.

After eight years of successful trading, the café and out-catering operation was stopped in its tracks when it became part of the CBD’s no-go red zone.

Owners Angelique and Danny Valentine – a brother and sister team, ran the central city venture with two business partners. They were understandably devastated to lose the Armagh Street site so abruptly, but bravely picked themselves up.

“I remember literally feeling heart-wrenched about our staff – who’ve all been with us for years, and the customers we saw every day,” Angelique says, “It was so upsetting, we thought, we have to keep going, we have to go again.”

And after many hours spent scoping out potential sites, Bean Scene has been reborn on a former carwash site in the now buzzing suburb of Addington. It’s one of the first hospitality businesses from the CBD to rebuild and reopen, and the Valentine siblings and the team are raring to go.

But it’s been a challenging few months, and taken a lot of creativity to get to this point. Thankfully, they invested in solid business insurance – an expense that has certainly paid off in getting the business up and running again. Recognising the importance of their team, they’ve kept staff on since February 22 – and they’ve found themselves doing all manner of tasks, including painting and donning a hammer, to get Bean Scene opened again in the new location.

“It’s been great for them, they’ve learnt a lot from this whole process, and being part of helping this business to rise from the ground up,” she says.

Angelique and Danny are loving having the team together in the café again, and thrilled that many of their former customers from Armagh Street have also relocated to the Addington area.

“It’s just so nice to see everyone again. The more businesses that open, the more normal people in Christchurch are going to feel. Business owners are showing such creativity and vision, and Cantabrians are embracing new things, there’s an exciting future ahead for this city,” she says.