Coquitlam neighbours host 'driveway dinners' to support local businesses and frontline workers

Residents of a Coquitlam community have been staging "driveway dinners" every Friday to connect with their neighbours and support local retailers.

The idea started in early April when several households near the intersection of Bow Drive and Flynn Crescent wanted to support their local Tri-Cities businesses.

"We always get outside for what we call driveway beers and we just kind of decided that since this is all going on and everything's kind of shut back, we'd support some local businesses," said Kurt Zaporozan, who lives on the block.

Each Friday, each household — there are as many as 16 of them participating — orders food from one local business and brewery.

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Last Friday, the food was ordered from a local pasta joint and beers from a micro-brewery in Port Moody; a nice accompaniment to the nightly cheer for health-care workers, Zaporozan says.

"We all get our pots and pans out and we turn the turn the car alarms on and we celebrate those people who were taking care of us," said Zaporozan.

Now into their sixth week, the residents say they plan to continue eating together, while physically distancing, as long as pandemic restrictions continue.

"It's all about the connection that we need with each other," said Zaporozan. "We've got a pretty good community here in Coquitlam."