Eastern P.E.I. restaurant will serve up a side of child care this fall

The owners of a restaurant in Souris, P.E.I. have come up with a unique way to stay busy during the traditionally slow off-season: by offering after-school care for children in the area. 

Amber and Jordan Dennis own Strait Goods, a restaurant that is busy in the summer thanks to an influx of tourists to the area and seasonal ferry traffic to the Magdalen Islands. 

But the pair said keeping afloat through the fall, winter and spring can be a challenge — and they want to put their ample space to good use. 

"The biggest thing that sparked the interest for me was hearing there's a need in the area, and we actually have the infrastructure," said Amber Dennis. 

In addition to the Strait Goods restaurant space, the building they own has 3,000 square feet of previously unused space.

Other than what's offered at the local French daycare located in the same building as École La-Belle-Cloche, Dennis said she isn't aware of after-school programs available elsewhere in the Souris area.

"We need after-school care to keep parents in the workplace," she said. "Parents are doing everything they can to get to work, to make sure they can stay at work for the duration of their job. Right now, they use their family members."

The Dennises plan to run the program — called Strait After School — from September to December this year as a pilot. 

They plan to take in 10 children between 3 p.m. and 6:30 p.m., offering an evening meal to the students if their parents make that request. 

With more people moving to the area from elsewhere in Canada and around the world, they said it's more important than ever to offer flexibility when it comes to child care. 

"Newcomers come here with absolutely no family to take care of their kids while they're at work, and they've come here to work," Dennis said. "We need to be able to provide the service." 

For Katelyn Bruce, the gap in services for school-aged children has meant a decline in her income from social media and web development projects. 

"I was actually unable to work full-time this summer," she said. "I had to let go of numerous of my clients and I'm only working with one client right now."

Bruce has relied on family and friends to help out with child care in the past, but now that she has signed up for Strait After School, business is picking up.