Giving back for hungry Haligonians

Are you a foodie here in HRM with a social conscience, and have racked your brain trying to find out what the best way would be to support your community, especially when it comes to helping combat malnutrition and food insecurity in your neighbourhood?

If so, why not head out to a nice restaurant and ruminate over that quandary over a nice meal in a pleasant atmosphere?

Oh, wait, did you go to one of the five restaurants in the city that are partnered with the Mealshare program? Well, enjoy your meal and go home without worry, because if you ordered the right item of their menus, then mission accomplished.

Yep, it’s just that easy. If you’ve eaten at at Two Doors Down, Chives or EnVie anytime since October of last year, and ordered the item right off their menu, you’ve already been helping fight the battle against hunger here at home.

“Mealshare is a social enterprise that launched to put an end to hunger, to poverty, and they use a really innovative way — they use the ‘buy one, get one’ model,” says Annika van Roy, the Atlantic representative for Mealshare. “They partner together with restaurants and restaurants designate certain menu items off their menu to be Mealshare items. When a customer comes in and orders this item, they not only receive their item, but the restaurant also donates $1 from each item to Mealshare, who then turns around and uses that dollar to buy a meal for someone in need.”

“We take it out ourselves, so the restaurant contributes to Mealshare directly,” says Diandra Phipps, co-owner of the vegan eatery EnVie. “So the customer just has to make the choice, really — no extra cost.”

While some of that dollar is spent internationally with Save the Children International, the majority of it goes right into charities combating hunger in the same province as the restaurant you patronized. Here in Nova Scotia, the beneficiary of the Mealshare program is the Breakfast Club of Canada.

“We are in over 1,000 schools all across Canada, and here in Nova Scotia, we have about 100,” says Karri Trowell, Atlantic program advisor for the Breakfast Club of Canada. “With Mealshare, it’s wonderful that the money stays locally, and that there’s so many volunteers in the restaurants.”

EnVie was one of the early adopters here in Halifax. Phipps didn’t hesitate to make a pact with Mealshare when they launched in the Maritimes, since they share her values when it comes to food.

“The values of Mealshare and EnVie really align well — what they’re doing, and the kind of awareness that they’re creating about food and security,” says Phipps, who has offered up both EnVie’s French toast and creamy chickpea and quinoa salad as the Mealshare items this year. “It really hits home for us, because that’s what EnVie is all about — providing wholesome food to people in our community, and building health and wellness.”

One of the other benefits of Mealshare being so locally-minded is it gives restauranteurs a chance to go beyond a dispassionate dollar donation per plate, and actually meet the people who benefit from their generosity.

“Our programs are run by volunteers, so by having the restaurants with Mealshare, a lot of their staff will go and volunteer, just to see who they’re servicing in the community,” says Trowell.

EnVie has visited St. Joseph’s Academy several times now and Phipps says that she and the staff got a lot out of seeing where their dollar goes each morning.

“All of our staff have gone and had a really great experience. It was really wonderful for them to be able to connect with the kids that benefit from the program,” says Phipps. “Our staff loved it so much that we’d like to make it a weekly thing. They only actually need two or three people each day, so with a staff of 13, we can really manage it.”

Recently, Phipps lent out some space at EnVie to help Mealshare celebrate their summer launch, where they announced that two more local eateries — Obladee Wine Bar & Piatto Pizzeria — have joined the Mealshare team in Halifax. But she wants to see that number grow before too long.

“I would like to see the number of restaurants double. I think Halifax has so much potential — so many great restaurants, as well as the public, [it] really responds well to this kind of program,” says van Roy. “We’ll be doing another launch in the fall, and we’d love to have many more restaurants jump on board.”

If you are a restauranteur and are wondering if there’s any perks to joining Mealshare, they do offer a lot of free additional advertizing and marketing on behalf of your Mealshare menu item. But for Phipps, while that is a nice boon, the bigger benefit is the chance to give back.

“Mealshare has really been wonderful in promoting and marketing events for us. But I think the biggest reward is definitely knowing that we’re making an impact,” says Phipps. “Restaurants are always looking for a way to give back to the community and get involved, and this is a really easy one that requires very little effort, and gets their customers involved. It creates a conversation.”

To find out more, visit Mealshare.ca. And if you’re interested in volunteering with the Breakfast Club of Canada, Trowell can be reached at [email protected].