Mealshare is partnering with A&W’s across Canada to ensure no youth in the community goes hungry.
“Mealshare is a not-for-profit that works with restaurants. The goal is ending youth hunger. We operate on a buy-one-give-one basis, each partner restaurant chooses an item or two to be a Mealshare item, and every time a customer purchases that meal, we share a meal with a youth in need,” said Mealshare Calgary Community Leader Mona Pinder.
“For A&W, they have been very involved with environmental and social issues and looking at how food impacts people, and it’s a fit for restaurants because they are so involved with food,” she said.
The Mealshare and A&W partnership began on Feb. 1 and is intended to be a long-term relationship.
On Mealshare Mondays, customers can order a Cheddar Bacon Uncle Burger Combo and one meal will be provided to a youth in need through Mealshare.
Any day of the week, customers can make it a Mealshare by adding $1 to their order. When customers do this, one meal will be provided to a youth in need through Mealshare.
“In Chestermere, the local meals will be provided through the food bank. The food bank can use the funds to purchase food for their hampers, or some food banks do programs where they do hot lunches,” Pinder said.
“We give to the local charity and they use it as they see fit, but it has to be for food. In our smaller communities we partner with the food banks because there isn’t always a youth centre that’s providing meals,” she said.
The Chestermere Food Bank supports local schools with breakfast and snack programs, along with the new Weekends and More (WAM) Hamper Program, where youth are provided food for the weekends when they are not in school and don’t have access to food.
“During the summer months, we have the After The Bell program which is available to youth in the community whose families are struggling with food insecurity,” said Chestermere Food Bank President Laurie Dunn.
“The funding from A&W and the Mealshare campaign will assist us in being able to continue providing these invaluable programs while supporting youth in need in our community,” she said.
Although the A&W and Mealshare partnership is new, Pinder has heard many owners are excited to be involved.
“Owners are very excited about it, and this is exciting for Mealshare, the partnership has allowed us to add 300 charities partners in smaller communities,” Pinder said.
“A&W Owners are excited about joining Mealshare because they are providing meals to kids in the places that they live and operate, and they are excited about being able to help their local communities,” she said.
Adding, “This partnership is making Mealshare national, we know that children are hungry not just in larger cities. This partnership really allows us to work in those local communities.”
