In 2013, cousins Andrew Hall and Jeremy Bryant aspired to create a business based on a simple idea: help restaurants donate meals to the people who need it most.
That’s how they created Mealshare, a company that allows restaurants to put the Mealshare logo next to dishes on their menus, and commit to donating towards providing a meal to a person in need in the for every dish purchased. For every dish purchased, one is donated to a a person in need, using a buy one get one model.
The company is based out of Canada and present in the United States, where they have provided 3,326,107 meals to people in need. They make an impact both locally and internationally, with half of their meals being donated throughout the world partnering with WE Charities. Mealshare goes beyond only providing meals though, their partners provide shelter, education, counseling and/or opportunities for youth in need to access life-changing services. They also partner with the Central Texas Food Bank to reach out locally in the United States.
They have partnered with restaurants such as Original Joes, a Canadian restaurant chain in 63 locations, and many smaller local restaurants.
This is a great story of a company that was founded on the principle of social impact. It seems like a simple idea, but they have perfected the complexities and difficulties of the innovation and created a system that is working daily toward redemptive entrepreneurship. Cool post!
I’ve heard about this company and I can’t believe it was only founded in 2013! This is an amazing idea to help those in need and give restaurants a way to make an impact in their community. I love how Mealshare lets the restaurants put stickers next to the meals that are donated so customers know how they were able to help.
This is so needed! I was actually just having a conversation last week with a friend who used to work for Panera Bread, who claimed that the branch she worked at never donated any of their bread at the end of the day as the company had said it would. This was mostly because they didn’t know who to give it to, and didn’t reach out and tell people about this service promised. It would be so much easier if a company like this came along to help. Hey, we could use that for Bon Appetite too.
As someone who is actively working at Chick-fil-A, a business like this sounds incredibly awesome. At our establishment, we gather some of the cold foods leftover at the end of the night, such as salads and fruit cups, and donate them to the Salvation Army. However, this only happens on Saturdays. It would be nice to be able to add additional foods that are thrown out at the end of every night, such as the chicken and such, and donate those to a company such as Mealshare. Great work!
This is such an awesome example of redemptive entrepreneurship. It is also such an effective, simple model. Hearing of impactful ideas like Mealshare is very encouraging in an increasingly chaotic world.