Community Spotlight

Interviewer: Hello, My name is Gerald. I’m from Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation and today I am with Marvin from JC’s Tacos. We are both excited because he is here to tell us more about his restaurant which is in the heart of Elmwood! So the very first question I have for you is can you please share with our residents what makes your business stand out in the community and why did you choose to start this business venture?

Marvin: Many years ago like 15 years ago, we had this opportunity to make a difference and the difference was mostly on the people with celiac disease. So the celiac disease that attack people with the organs and the body that could be lethal and then we used to live in Elmwood. When we started, we lived in Elmwood, and when we moved away we opened our store and then we decided to come back with JC’S Tacos because our customers asked if we could open a restaurant with gluten-free products and that’s how we decided to open JC’S Tacos and it has been nothing but a success and the community has actually supported us from all over the city and the country and in some cases we have people coming to visit us from Canada from Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, We have people from all over and Elmwood of course which has been a success area for us.

Interviewer: That’s wonderful to hear so please give us a sneak peak into some of the exciting events for this summer.

Marvin: Every summer and this summer is not an exception we have a unique event that we have that pride parade that we gonna be hosting in the next couple days. A week and then we have the Folklorama that we have been involved with it. We participate in the El Salvadorian Pavilion sometimes and always at the Mexican Pavilions. We all have presence there and volunteering this year we just happened to partner up JC’S Tacos and Country Boy in Gimli. I don’t know if you were aware of that but we just acquired the Country boy in Gimli so visit us there as well.

Interviewer: What we’re hearing is you need to go catch JC’S Tacos at the pride event, at the Mexican Pavilion, and also at Gimli. What are some hidden gems on your menu that the audience has to know about?

Marvin: Well, we have so many exciting things that are at JC’S. If I’m there I usually accommodate to anything the customer wants and that or needs but we do have some Parillada there. The Parillada is a blend of three meat and once the hot skillet that comes out and then you make your own tacos and it’s for sharing. There’s no restaurant like that in the city of Winnipeg that can provide so we do that and have multiple products that are actually are unique in the city and I’m so happy to have them in Elmwood.

Interviewer: Please tell us more about your team, who are the masterminds behind the scenes?

Marvin: Probably my wife, my wife is one of the masterminds and I thank my kids, We have such a great team. We have a lady there who has been there since Day 1 her name is Amelia. She’s kind of retired but she keeps coming to work so she’s always there and obviously God is the one and only that we can give praise for everything that has happened to us and the many things that he keeps giving us, for our family and the people that we work with and the people we serve.

Interviewer: Our last question is can you please a special message to our audience to come experience the magic of JC’s Tacos?

Marvin: There’s no words to describe how grateful we are and to be able to say ‘you know what I’m honored to be serving the community and the city’ We love serving you and we hope to see you soon at our place and we’ll be happy to serve and if there’s anything that we can do for you to make it better we’ll be happy to do it and come and see us!

Interviewer: Thank you very much, Marvin. That’s all for today, it’s Gerald from Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation with Marvin from JC’S Tacos the pride and joy of our Elmwood community. Please feel free to stop by, they do wonderful things for the community, they have wonderful food options on their menu be sure to check that out!

Interviewer: Hello guys! it’s Gerald from Chalmers Neighbourhood Renewal Corporation with me is Michel from Glenelm.

Michel: So GENA is the Glenelm Neighborhood Association. We have been doing wrk in the comunity for oh at least eight years now um most of the stuff we do is basically a community building. We look to connect neighbours and then we also do things to increase safety and amenities in the neighbourhood so that we have a better quality of life for everybody, so it’s the main stuff we focus on.

Interviewer: Give us a little teaser on your upcoming events for this summer.

Michel: Yeah, So we’ve got a bunch of cool stuff that we have been doing for a few years that are our favourite summer event is the meandering music which works kind of like a like a progressive dinner party where um you know you go from one house to the next for each course of the meal all this way this is the same thing but kind of a music festival so you go from one house to the next for a series of porch concerts. So you do a whole evening and the audience moves from one porch to the next to see all the concerts so we have two nights but we’re doing that this summer. One is on July 13th and then the other one is on August 17th. Its free for anybody to come just bring something to sit on.

Interviewer: The next question is what programs you currently offer in the neighbourhood or do you have any other future programs you’re thinking of implementing?

Michel: We do quite a few things. We we do a spring clean up in the springtime, we do uh family movie in the park, we do picnic in the park, we do spring market sweets and seeds, we do of course meandering music like I said and then we also partne with other organisations in the community to do neighborhood wide stuff so we got our hands and kind of other things in the winter. We do a snow sculpture challenge, we do a winter warmer, we do yeah I mean we just we basically resond to the needs of the community. So whenever the community is looking for something we try to adapt and and do those things and you.

Interviewer: Can you please tell us about your biggest accomplishment