East Vancouver restaurant owner home delivers ice during heatwave

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) — When a Vancouver restaurant owner saw that people weren’t able to find ice during this heatwave she thought about the machine churning out cubes in her closed restaurant. So she decided to put the word out on social media, offering to drop ice off to anyone near her East Vancouver restaurant who needs it.

Sophie Lin runs Old Bird, on Main Street near East King Edward Avenue.

“Basically our restaurant was closed yesterday and then I thought, ‘You know, I have lots of ice in my icemaker — why not?'” she explains.

“People were saying that all the ice was sold out and it’s getting really hot so I thought, you know, I’ll just do it. I have a bit of time and I have a car.”

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She put the offer out on social media, and says even though only a few people took her up on it, the ones that did were very happy to see her.

“I’m pretty surprised that not that many people took the offer but there were a lot of people commenting that it was a great initiative,” Lin says.

Among those that Lin helped was a house full of roommates, a young mom, and a group putting coolers full of water out around Mount Pleasant.

She also suggests visiting an eatery is a good way to beat the heat, and that owners grateful for the business might be willing to give customers some ice to take home.

“Anyone really urgently needing some ice, some cool — just go to a restaurant. Usually, if there’s a bar, there’s an ice maker,” she says.

“Stay safe, dodge the heat. A lot of restaurants have air conditioning too. So, if you bring them some businesses they’ll be happy to help you to stay cool.”