Fast-food chain teams up with Mealshare to help feed Canadian families in need

A&W is the first fast food restaurant chain to partner with Mealshare in the hopes of feeding 1,250,000 youth in need annually

CALGARY — A&W is the home of the Burger Family and now it’s partnering with Mealshare to help Canadian families.

The goal for the national partnership is to share 1,250,000 meals every year and all of its 1,000 locations across the country are taking part, including 51 in Calgary.

Stephen Redfern has owned the franchise at South Trail Crossing since 2008 and says the partnership kicked off Feb. 1 with ‘Mealshare Monday’.

“For every cheddar-bacon uncle burger combo that’s sold, we’ll donate one meal,” said Redfern.

“A nutritious meal to vulnerable kids in the community so it was a great first day, the momentum is growing and we can’t wait to see where it goes from here.”

Redfern says you also have the ability to turn any food item on the menu into a Mealshare donation by just adding $1 to the total.

How the Mealshare ‘buy-one, give-one’ model works is simple. Mealshare partners with restaurants and places its logo next to a few menu items. When a customer orders one of those items, they get their meal as usual, but Mealshare also promises to provide one simple, healthy meal to a youth in need.

In Calgary the program supports Brown Bagging for Calgarys Kids and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Calgary (now known as Trellis) to provide meals in the local community.

Mealshare launched in July of 2013 in Calgary, then quickly expanded across Canada. Currently, Mealshare is partnered with more than 500 restaurants in 10 major cities and more than 50 smaller communities.

To date, Mealshare has been able to provide close to 3.9 million meals to youth in need.

Breanne Sich is the vice-president of marketing and says the pandemic has impacted the charity.

“The hospitality industry, our primary partners, have been through the ringer,” said Sich. “On average we were projecting we’d be doing about a million meals per year in 2020 and that was decreased by 60 to 70 percent.”

A&W is the first fast-food restaurant to sign up and now Sich says Mealshare can reach communities it’s never been in before.

“So, if we’re able to help bridge that gap, not only in the Calgarys but in the Okotoks, the Melfort Saskatchewans and all these tiny communities across the country, we can do that with the support of A&W.” said Sich.

In 1956 the first A&W drive-in restaurant in Canada opened on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg. In many communities A&W was the first nationally branded restaurant in town. Susan Senecal is the chief executive officer at A&W Canada

“I’m looking forward to the connections that we can build with the great people that are working in the different communities across the country to work to provide food for kids in need,” she said.

“I think that’s a really noble cause, I think it’s a great model and the ability to make a difference means a lot to me and our operators.”

Learn more about mealshare online.