It’s going to be a helluva party Saturday – and the annual salmon donation by the Canadian Fishing Company is going to match it.
With a huge crowd expected for the Salmon Festival in Steveston, the Richmond-based company, known as Canfisco, will be supplying the most salmon it ever has to the event.
Instead of the usual 1,000 or so pounds of salmon, Pam Nijar, Canfisco’s manager of traffic and logistics, said around 1,200 pounds will be delivered on Friday to the festival site.
Their generosity equates to about 3,000 plates of six ounce portions, with all the proceeds going to the Steveston community.
“We’re going to be extending the salmon bake sale hours, as well, so we can cope with all the customers,” Nijar told the Richmond News, from the company’s Rice Mill Road office above the Massey Tunnel.
“I’ll be there from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the day, but we’ll basically be there until the salmon is gone.
“We’re going to start serving at 10 a.m. this year, an hour earlier, because it’s going to be crazy busy.”
Canfisco, said Nijar, has been supplying the salmon for the Salmon Festival for many years and this is her fourth year volunteering her time for the salmon bake.
“We look after the salmon; we donate, bake and plate it. I also organize all the volunteers (mostly staff) and their family members and some students.
“We need people for serving, taking cash, mixing salad, racking the salmon, barbecuing, de-racking, plating and, of course, ticket sales.
“It takes about 30 Canfisco staff to pull it off.”
Nijar said the dry goods get delivered (cutlery, plates etc.) two days before the festival and she will personally deliver the salmon on Friday in a pick-up truck.
“Shoreline will deliver the donated ice also on Friday and it’ll be stored in a reefer truck, donated by Save-On,” she added.
“We will prep the area on Friday and finish it off early Saturday morning.”
But will Nijar be partaking of the tasty, traditional Salmon Festival treat on Canada Day?
“I’m a vegetarian, but I do love cooking. I don’t eat fish; but I do make great fish curries…for everyone else!”
