Original Joe’s donates meals to those in need

Melissa Strle
Times Reporter

 

Original Joe’s Restaurant and Bar celebrated 150,000 meals shared with charitable organization Mealshare that sees partial proceeds from featured items on the Original Joe’s menu go towards purchasing a meal for someone in need.
Strathmore’s Original Joe’s contribution to the Mealshare program has totaled 1,625 meals shared to date.
“It’s just a really cool way to give directly back to people in need and it always feels good,” said Blake Chayer, manager of Original Joe’s in Strathmore. “It’s nice to be a part of a company that actually cares about charity and giving back, because we owe our success to everyone within the community.”
Original Joe’s launched a partnership with the charitable organization Mealshare, a Calgary-born non-profit, back in 2014. Since its inception in July 2013, Mealshare has accomplished its Road to One Million campaign by providing one million meals to people in need.
Originals Joe’s has captured approximately 15 per cent, or 150,000, of those one million meals.
Currently, the Strathmore Original Joe’s is featuring the Tostado Salad as the selected meal that, when purchased, will contribute towards the Mealshare program.
“It’s kind of a seasonal thing; the Tostado Salad is one we did because it was really popular the year prior and it’s also a really popular summer meal,” said Chayer. “Coming into the winter, we’ll be changing it [meal].”
Anytime someone purchases the Tostado Salad, Original Joe’s automatically donates one meal to the Strathmore food banks at no cost to the consumer.
Chayer said the next featured Mealshare item will be based on popularity.
“They’ll [head office] go through the numbers and see what is selling really well just so we’re not choosing a menu item that’s not going to be beneficial to the program,” said Chayer.
Original Joe’s advertises Mealshare items on the menu and also advertises in a small way on the website and on social media.
“It flies a little bit under the radar just because it’s kind of in the fine print and it’s not something that gets talked about a lot, maybe as it should be,” said Chayer.
In addition to donating meals to local food banks, Chayer said the company is in line to do some volunteer work through the Mealshare program as well. To date, Original Joe’s has volunteered over 1,500 hours.
“That’s another way to get involved with the program and the community as well,” he said.
Strathmore Original Joe’s tries to get involved in the community as much as it can. “We have a bit of a limited budget, but we always try to give back as much as we can,” noted Chayer.
“We do a lot of gift card donations to charities and we sponsor the Ag Society golf tournament.”
Chayer said the Mealshare program is a great fit for the restaurant.
“It’s nice because it’s specific to the communities and I think that’s why we decided to partner with the Mealshare program – because it targets the specific small communities that we are a part of,” he said.