Kim Stacey is the owner of Emma’s Eatery in Eastern Passage. http://www.emmaseatery.ca/
Kim began by telling us she has been in business since 2007 and the restaurant name is from her middle name. Emma’s is an all day breakfast restaurant with weekend brunches.
All menu items are made from scratch with fresh local ingredients as much as possible, depending on the season.
Stacey has her background in business and finance where she worked for about 12 years on and off. Beginning as a teller she worked her way up to client relations and then eventually to Bay Street trading stocks and bonds.
Stacy soon realized that although the money was great it wasn’t making her happy so she quit and moved back home to Halifax. She worked as a photographer for a while but found that involved too much travel and time away from home.
Stacy put together several business plans that featured sports, food and outdoor adventure some of her varied interests. After exploring the many options she eventually settled on the food industry and decided to start a restaurant. Stacy noticed that many small towns are being devastated by the down economy and that most of the young people are leaving for the cities.
Stacy became involved with Slow Food Nova Scotia http://www.slowfoodns.blogspot.com/ and hires young people from the local community. In fact all of her hires are teenagers. None of them had previous experience so Stacy had to teach them everything about the business and has taken to teaching these young folks things about business. This wasn’t without its challenges but once she sat down with them and learned what was important to them she has been able to build a strong dependable team. They are so dependable that she is now able to take 4 day week ends if she wishes, she trusts them that much.
Stacy has developed partnerships with a variety of other businesses within the community. For example she sources her coffee from Sea Gulps and therefore is not seen as threat to their business as she provides them with a reliable source of revenue.
She sources produce from Pete’s Fruitique as she has found them to be the most reliable source of fresh and local produce.
All of her meats, poultry and eggs are free range because they are better for you and just taste better.
Stacy is also a member of the Nova Scotia Food Policy Council, which as a part of its mandate is trying to preserve peoples right to access to seeds. Large multi-national corporations such as Monsanto are trying to control all seeds and access to them, by producing seeds that are sterile. You can get one crop out of them but any seeds the plant produces will not germinate and you are forced to keep getting seeds from them.
Stacy closed by telling us that her catering business is growing and that she truly loves to make people happy with food.