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“It feels good to help. It feels good to be busy.”
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• Regina Leader-Post 
Robyn Kouros, right, and her daughter Ava make bagged lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach in Regina on Thursday, April 9, 2020. Photo by TROY FLEECE /Regina Leader-Post
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An eye-opening trip to El Salvador and a revelation inspired a Regina mother-daughter duo to spend their isolation hours making bagged lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach.
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“You start to feel really overwhelmed and then I realized, I have a roof over head, I have heat in my house and I have so much food that I can give back,” Robyn Kouras said in an interview Thursday.
Robyn Kouros, right, and her daughter Ava make bagged lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach in Regina on Thursday, April 9, 2020. Photo by TROY FLEECE /Regina Leader-Post
Kouras and her husband own the K Family Restaurant, and on March 21 made the difficult decision to temporarily close their doors, not even offering take-out or delivery. At first she wallowed in all that COVID-19 had taken away including one of her businesses (they also own a Carl’s Jr. franchise which has remained open for drive-thru service only) and her daughters senior year of high school.
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She wallowed while it seemed like everyone around her was bursting with optimism, but one day, amid the negativity, she realized how much she missed serving people.
So using food from the restaurant before it went to waste, Kouros and her 17-year-old daughter Ava started making individual lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach, a non-profit that aims to end poverty and homelessness in Regina. For the past three weeks they’ve made 150-200 lunches per week, making everything from egg salad and chicken salad sandwiches to fettuccine Alfredo and potato bacon chowder. The menu for the next two weeks includes meatloaf with potatoes and carrots, and pulled pork with potato salad.
Robyn Kouros and her 17-year-old daughter Ava have been making individual lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured here is a batch of fettuccine Alfredo. Photo supplied by Robyn Kouros. jpg 
Robyn Kouros and her 17-year-old daughter Ava have been making individual lunches to donate to Carmichael Outreach in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Pictured here is Ava (second row, just left of centre with white shirt and braids) during a February trip to El Salvador where she realized the injustices others face around the world. It is what inspired her to help at home. Photo supplied by Ava Kouros. jpg
Motivated by a school trip to El Salvador in February, Ava said she got an understanding of the injustices faced by others around the world.
“That really just kind of opened my eyes to different ways in which I can see that kind of injustice in my own community,” she said. “By having the time to think more about it and to have the time to be able to get involved more, I just felt this would be the perfect opportunity to find a way to give back.”
It’s a good distraction for them both from the challenges that COVID-19 has posed for us all, they said.
“It feels good to help. It feels good to be busy. It makes you more positive,” said Robyn. “I also realized that this is something we’re going to have to do even after all this.”
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