HILLSBURGH – She’s a chef, a social worker, a family counsellor and entrepreneur.
And now Pam Fanjoy is expanding her business model to combine all three of her areas of expertise.
It’s a circumstance born of necessity, she said in an interview on May 3. But also one of hope.
“It’s been super hard to be in the food and beverage industry this year,” she said.
“My pivot will save me financially and has helped me stay hopeful.”
Fanjoy opened her Fan/Joy restaurant in Hillsburgh in 2016 with a focus on providing delicious, local, organic food and a unique dining experience.
By 2019 the restaurant was flourishing, with 60 per cent of her customers coming from Niagara and the GTA.
She also started a Junior Chef program, to teach cooking skills to youth including some with complicated family relationships.
In January of 2020 she enrolled in the Rhyze program at Innovation Guelph but within weeks the program had to go online.
COVID-19 had arrived.
Fanjoy had to close the restaurant because of the pandemic but could offer take out. She called it Gourmet to Go.
The Rhyze program ended with participants making a business pitch and in October she won $10,000 to help expand Gourmet to Go into 10 communities with a stronger online presence.
In November she won another $10,000 grant from BMO given to women entrepreneurs and with restaurants still closed, she used the grant to expand the Junior Chef program.
Early in 2021 Fanjoy signed up for the Win This Space competition hosted by the Business Centre of Guelph-Wellington.
She placed second, winning $7,500 and a few other perks. And now she plans on combining all her expertise and open Fan/Joy Culinary Counselling in Guelph this summer. It will be a counselling centre for youth and families, with cooking at its core.
If the pandemic has done anything good, it’s made people realize the importance of food to our health and mental health, she said.
“You can’t change the world on an empty stomach,” Fanjoy remarked.
“We nourish the body with healthy food; we find therapy in the kitchen for the mind; and for the soul, we feed connection. Fan/Joy is about the importance of connection.”
As the pandemic lifts, Fanjoy predicts mental health will become the new focus and she’s looking forward to providing a unique service.
“People are starting to get it. We need each other to thrive and food is the common connector. Food connects us all,” she said.
She does intend to reopen the Fan/Joy restaurant in Hillsburgh once the pandemic is over.
