Oxford Canteen Owners Hope to Keep Business Alive

Photo of Oxford Canteen. Photo by JT Butts

By JT Butts
Journalism Student
jbutts@go.olemiss.edu

Oxford Canteen is normally bustling at lunchtime, but co-owner Cynthia Joyce says these days, they’re serving only one customer at a time. Joyce explains what she and her chef husband Corbin Evans have done to keep the business going during the pandemic. 

“We’ve been really this past week started doing a very limited menu that’s take out only, and it’s for curbside pickup,” Cynthia said. “The restaurant is really small physically, and so there’s no way to practice proper social distancing.” 

https://youtu.be/DqJ6TojyY1c

Joyce and Evans are in the same tough spot as a lot of local businesses. The main goal Joyce and her husband have is to keep the business alive in any way possible.  

“The hardest thing to think about is whether or not the business can survive. You know, it’s very much a big question right now,” Jones said. “I mean we are trying to remain hopeful. We have applied for disaster loans for this small business administration. We have no idea if we will see any money.” 

Joyce said it’s going to take more than the government to keep businesses alive in Oxford. The most important thing is support from the Oxford community.  

“One thing I would say is to support local businesses, and don’t support big chains. I mean not that people don’t have jobs at the chains too,” Jones said. “The big giant corporations can weather these kinds of storms.”