Appetite for paying it forward West End meal vouchers feed hunger for food and community connection By: Eva Wasney Posted: 5:36 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 21, 2024

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This article was published 21/05/2024 (520 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Eadha Bakery Worker Co-op doles out free food to roughly 20 customers each and every day.

The giveaways aren’t the result of a daily sourdough sweepstake, but an intentional act of mutual aid.

The bakery in the bright purple building on Ellice Avenue is one of three West End restaurants running pay-it-forward food-voucher programs that allow customers to buy a meal for someone without the means to do so.

“It started because the neighbourhood that we’re in has a lot of people who are houseless and it’s a lower income area and, being a specialty bakery, we’re gentrifying the area, which is not the kind of thing we want to do,” Eadha worker-owner MacK Parman says. “We want to be able to feed the people who need it.”

A few blocks away, Feast Café Bistro and Hildegard’s Bakery have similar programs in place.

All three restaurants are in an area in which the median household income is less than $50,000. Instead of ignoring the social challenges that exist beyond their front doors, the respective business owners have invited their vulnerable neighbours in for a meal.

At Eadha, there was a desire to feed people, but it didn’t make financial sense to give out free baked goods. The voucher program offered a simple solution to the conundrum.

It works like this: paying customers can purchase individual menu items or make monetary donations to the program. A running list is kept at the till and voucher users can order anything that’s available, from coffee and scones to bread and soup. Vouchers can be redeemed between 4 and 5 p.m. each day.

Bringing in enough funds to meet demand can be a delicate balance. While Eadha has seen an uptick in voucher patrons over the last few years, donations have managed to keep pace.

“It’s become a place where people know that if they need help, they can come and ask for it.”

“I think there’s definitely an increased demand for food and I think a lot of our customers are on the same wavelength that we are and they understand that, so more people are donating,” Parman says.

“Sometimes we’ll be running a bit low … and it always works out that somebody will come in that day or that week and make, like, a $20 voucher donation.”

One of the biggest benefits of the program is the community that has cropped up around it. Customers know their donations are going directly to those in need and workers at the bakery have gotten to know many of the regulars who stop in for a free bite to eat.

“As a co-op, we’re very big on community,” Parman says. “We really prioritize (voucher patrons), because they’re not as well taken care of by a lot of society.”

Up the road at Feast, community is also an important part of the business model.

“It’s become a place where people know that if they need help, they can come and ask for it,” says owner Christa Bruneau-Guenther, who keeps a pot of soup bubbling on the stove and a stash of warm clothes in the office for anyone in need.

Bruneau-Guenther has been serving free food to hungry neighbourhood residents since opening her Indigenous restaurant at the corner of Ellice and Sherbrook eight years ago.

Soup made from leftover ingredients and day-old bannock was the most economically viable way to meet the need, but the meals were still eating into her bottom line. The service became a formalized meal-voucher program when customers took notice and began making donations unprompted.

The restaurant started a GoFundMe campaign to offer free meals during the pandemic and now has a donation page on its website (feastcafebistro.com). Staff see between 15 and 20 people coming in daily for soup and bannock.

It’s a mutually beneficial program, says Bruneau-Guenther, who often sees voucher patrons picking up garbage and tidying the block surrounding the restaurant as a thanks.

“Food is love and it’s medicine,” she says. “When you’re handing out free soup and bannock it creates that energy of love and care and empathy … and that flows out into the people you’re giving it to.”

“When you’re handing out free soup and bannock it creates that energy of love and care and empathy… and that flows out into the people you’re giving it to.”

Nearby, Hildegard’s uses colourful sewing buttons to keep track of donations. The establishment’s coffee and muffin voucher program also started as a reaction to its clientele.

“Having something for everyone who came through the doors was important to us,” co-owner Michael Harms says.

“We had people coming into the space who were not necessarily paying customers, but we wanted to keep a good (sense) of hospitality.”

Hospitality is an ingrained part of the ethos at the Portage Avenue bakery founded by farmers Dora and Cornelius Friesen, who were known to host large community pizza nights on their rural property.

Despite little promotion, the bakery’s button jar manages to meet demand, thanks to regular customers contributing a few dollars here and there on top of their orders.

That said, Harms would like to see the program grow. He’s seen the impact food vouchers can have within his own establishment and a few blocks away at Feast and Eadha.

“It’s cool to know it’s something that’s working and something that others are using as well,” Harms says.

“That this neighbourhood can show itself in that generous way is pretty neat.”

eva.wasney@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @evawasney