It's been just under three weeks since restaurants across the province once again opened their doors for dine-in services, after being closed for nearly two months.

While the food and beverage industry has been hard hit this year, that didn't stop a local restaurant owner from raising money for the food bank just days into reopening.

This week the owner of Mehtab East Indian Cuisine, Jag Thind handed over a $500 cheque to the Cochrane Activettes Food Bank, funds which he raised from a reopening weekend initiative.

Thind says that although it's been a tough year, he feels fortunate to still be able to operate his business, and he wanted to give back to the community.

On reopening weekend, which just so happened to coincide with Valentine's Day, Mehtab put aside $1.00 from every dish that was ordered to donate to the food bank. Thind says that he later rounded up the weekend’s proceeds to a total of $500 to aid the Activettes.

Restaurants across the province had to shut down operations completely back in March, and since then they have been operating at a reduced capacity and at times limited to delivery and take-out orders only.

Despite these limitations, Jag and the folks at Mehtab have been giving back to the community throughout the course of the pandemic. They have been offering free meals for residents in need, and he personally spent Christmas Eve delivering free holiday meals to Cochranites spending the holidays alone.