Buy a meal, one gets donated to charity: Mealshare expands to Toronto

TORONTO – A program that donates meals to those in need has launched in Toronto.

Mealshare, a social enterprise that connects local restaurants with local charities, launched Thursday in three Toronto restaurants.

Diners at Hawthorne Food & Drink, Khao San Road and Café Belong will have the option to purchase a designated Mealshare menu item. When they do, another meal will be donated to charity, at no extra cost to the diner.

Mealshare is a non-profit organization that launched in July 2013, teaming up with four restaurants. It now has partnerships with more than 80 restaurants in Victoria, Vancouver, Cowichan Valley, B.C., Edmonton, Calgary, Toronto and Halifax.

In each city that Mealshare operates, it works with a different local charity – in Toronto’s case, with Parkdale Activity-Recreation Centre (PARC) – to donate meals. The organization also works with Save the Children, which provides meals to children in Africa.

As of Thursday afternoon, the program had served nearly 114,000 meals.

The organization has also pitted two Canadian mayors against each other in “The Mealshare Food Fight.” Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi will compete against each other, seeing which city can get the most restaurant partnerships by Jan.1.

The “buy one, give one” model has been used successfully in other ventures as well.

Toms Shoes, a California-based company, has been operating under the “one for one” tagline since 2006. For every pair of shoes purchased, the company gives a pair to children in need. To date, the company says it has donated 35 million pairs of shoes. In 2011, it expanded to launch an eyewear line, which has seen 250,000 pairs of glasses donated to date.

In similar fashion, Kitts is a Canadian company that donates a new pair of underwear to charity for every pair sold. Charities that accept clothing donations can’t take used underwear and often people don’t think to purchase these garments when giving to charity. The business hopes to eliminate that gap. Kitts has partnered with non-profits Dress For Success and Dress Your Best Toronto. The garments are made in Toronto.