A lot has happened since Belmont alumnus Derek Juno and fellow University of Victoria business school grad Andrew Hall walked away from promising corporate careers to launch a social enterprise startup last fall.
Expansion plans for B次元官网网址� the program sees diners buy a specific meal at participating restaurants, who in turn buy a meal for a local service provider B次元官网网址� were put on hold as the young entrepreneurs joined a business incubator program in Vancouver.
B次元官网网址淲e stepped away and looked at our organization,B次元官网网址� says Juno, 24. B次元官网网址淲e took nearly three months to work on business development B次元官网网址� working B次元官网网址榦nB次元官网网址� the business rather than B次元官网网址榠nB次元官网网址� the business.B次元官网网址�
Working within the Coast Capital Savings Social Venture Incubator, a partnership with the Sauder School of Business at UBC, the team has fine-tuned its model and is preparing to announce its next wave of restaurant signups.
Those nine local establishments include FloydB次元官网网址檚 Diner in Langford, which will become the first West Shore restaurant in the mix along with more than a dozen others in downtown Victoria. In total, about 30 are on board with the program in Greater Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary and Juno expects that number to rise to 65 by the end of May.
Part of the tweaking has been to facilitate a closer connection between restaurants and the charity they help through Mealshare, he says.
B次元官网网址淎t the end of the month, say youB次元官网网址檙e FloydB次元官网网址檚 Diner and youB次元官网网址檝e been able to sell B次元官网网址榵B次元官网网址� number of Mealshare items. (The idea is to give) the restaurant staff a chance to work with the actual charity to serve those meals.B次元官网网址�
The first sparks of JunoB次元官网网址檚 motivation to work to help organizations such as Our Place Society, their charity of choice in the Capital Region, came when he went on a house-building trip to Mexico with Katrin Van der leedenB次元官网网址檚 PACE class at Belmont in Grade 10. Those sparks were further fanned by his participation in Kevin Harrington and Troy HarrisB次元官网网址� leadership class at the school, Juno says.
His later work volunteering as an English teacher in Cambodia gave him further exposure to situations where getting enough food to eat is a daily struggle.
B次元官网网址�(Those experiences were) the biggest life-changing moments for me,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淭o go outside this amazing place we live in and to connect with these people on a really deep level was amazing.B次元官网网址�
Hall pitched the concept of Mealshare to Juno over Skype, while the latter was in Cambodia. The goal was to find a sustainable way to fund rural schools.
That goal has become more localized, but expanding the international flavour of the project remains a key part of the groupB次元官网网址檚 plans, Juno says. B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 been an absolute dream come true these last few years to see our dream take shape,B次元官网网址� he says. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檝e realized itB次元官网网址檚 not about what you get, itB次元官网网址檚 about what you give.B次元官网网址�
The new additions to the restaurant list will be included after the April 24 launch at mealshare.ca, where you can also see how many meals have been provided to date by member establishments.
Other information can be found at Mealshare on Facebook and @MealshareTeam on Twitter.
editor@goldstreamgazette.com
