Everyone Eats is on the move

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 04/02/2021 (2094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After operating out of Brandon University’s Harvest Hall since its inception, the Everyone Eats program will be using the Prairie Oasis Senior Centre as its home base starting early next month.

According to a Wednesday news release from BU, the program will continue to provide its unique “pay what you can” ordering service at this new location, while university staff will return to focusing mostly on campus food services by the end of February.

“Everyone Eats has been a great partnership, really unique and filling a genuine need in the community,” said Nicholas Namespetra, BU’s manager of food services, in Wednesday’s release. “We were honoured to help get this program up and running and will always be there to step up to support our community.”

Namespetra later told the Sun that Prairie Oasis’ smaller kitchen facilities are much more suitable for Everyone Eats’ needs, especially if its organizers want to make the program sustainable well into the future.

“We have a large, large kitchen at the university, and they don’t need as much space for Everyone Eats,” he said. “And it just works out a little bit better for them to move on to that next place.”

Now, John Howard Society of Brandon executive director Ross Robinson revealed that he and other members of the non-governmental organization are in the middle of hiring new staff and moving their assets over to this downtown location.

Despite this big transition, Robinson remains optimistic about the future of this meal program, especially since working with a group like Prairie Oasis has its built-in advantages.

“They already run the Meals on Wheels program, so there’s a lot of synergy there,” he said. “They’re already cooking and delivering meals in the daytime. Now we just have to add the evening operations that the Everyone Eats program is all about.”

Everyone Eats first emerged back in June 2020, with John Howard, BU and Assiniboine Community College teaming up to provide an affordable meal delivery program in response to the massive food insecurity highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

For a donation of $0 to $100, Brandonites were able to order “chef-inspired” meals for themselves and their families, getting the option for delivery or curbside pickup outside Harvest Hall.

While Everyone Eats began as a pilot project, it quickly caught on in the community to the point where BU staff were regularly preparing hundreds of meals three days a week and putting together special dinners for events like Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In fact, BU revealed on Wednesday that Everyone Eats distributed more than 1,500 turkey dinners this past holiday season alone.

Despite this upcoming change of scenery, Robinson assured the Sun that Everyone Eats will maintain the same kind of output at its new home, and that locals will still be able to complete their orders through everyoneeatsbrandon.ca.

In the meantime, Namespetra and his BU staff are responsible for preparing Everyone Eats meals until the end of the month and will be serving up the program’s greatest hits before they officially hand the baton over to John Howard.

“We’re going to go out with a bang, and (to) give them the best possible push for continued success,” he said.

The Prairie Oasis Senior Centre is located at 241 Eighth St. in downtown Brandon, roughly one kilometre east of the BU campus.

» kdarbyson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @KyleDarbyson