{"id":289,"date":"2018-09-19T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-19T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/?p=289"},"modified":"2023-10-04T03:29:10","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T03:29:10","slug":"new-meal-choice-at-ryerson-makes-a-special-impact","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rutvnews.com\/new-meal-choice-at-ryerson-makes-a-special-impact","title":{"rendered":"New meal choice at Ryerson makes a \u2018Special\u2019 impact"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ryerson students can now help feed a child in need when they purchase a meal on campus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The university\u2019s latest meal offering, the WE Special, has an appetizing social impact. Each purchase unlocks a meal for a child in need locally or globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This initiative is the result of an innovative partnership between the charitable organization WE and foodservice provider Chartwells and will be implemented at over 600 schools across Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cOur mission at WE is to make doing good doable, so we want to provide easy ways that people can make a difference \u2013 literally as easy as the meal you pick today,\u201d WE co-founder Craig Kielburger said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

At the time of purchase, students will be given a code they can enter online using WE\u2019s Track Your Impact service to pinpoint where their donated meal has been delivered. They can also share their impact to social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A mini poster greets patrons of Ryerson\u2019s Hub Cafe and provides information about the new WE Special. (Photo credit: Angela McLean\/RUtv News)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The partnership is a key element of Chartwells\u2019 Thinking Ahead Giving Back initiative which outlines that over the next three years the company will deliver a million meals, provide 10,000 hours of community support and create 1,000 jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is personal for me,\u201d Chartwells Canada president Ashton Sequeira shared. \u201cWhen we talk about a million meals, there was a time when myself and my family lived on the poverty line. I had to sell my baseball cards to put food on the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sequeira\u2019s desire to use Chartwells\u2019 platform to give back came into fruition when he met Kielburger through a mutual friend last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAt Chartwells, we are global citizens and we were looking for an organization that also had a global footprint because we have a deep desire to do more,\u201d Sequeira said. \u201cCertainly WE has been doing that for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With both organizations tackling the issues of youth poverty and hunger, there was a natural fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another natural fit was using Ryerson as the launch site for the partnership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think Ryerson is an awesome example of social action,\u201d Kielburger said. \u201cThis school is always deeply involved, the students are amazing in their dollars raised and hours of service, it has a phenomenal series of programs including social entrepreneurship, and so it was a logical choice to launch here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRyerson embodies the idea of students who are downtown on an urban campus wanting to give back and wanting to create positive impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside the meal, Ryerson\u2019s Hub Caf\u00e9 and select post-secondary dining locations will sell product from ME to WE, WE\u2019s consumer-facing enterprise, including ME to WE Chocolate and rafiki bracelets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WE is also encouraging university students to get involved with their annual Halloween initiative, WE Scare Hunger. Students can come together and knock on doors on Halloween not to collect candy but instead canned food for local food banks. The campaign was developed by an American university student but to date has been taken on primarily by elementary, middle and high school students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The push to an older student demographic represents the first steps of the organization\u2019s early-stage WE Universities program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs students have gotten older they\u2019ve left high school and are now in university and so we want to make sure that we can grow our programs to continue supporting them and their work,\u201d Kielburger said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kielburger recognized students in university are often limited on resources and time and may feel they have no power to make a difference. In reality, they have plenty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think that the world today provides us with more opportunities than ever before to create change and we don\u2019t have to wait,\u201d he said. \u201cIt starts with the simple choices we make that show we are not powerless when faced with so many challenges in the world. In fact, to quote Mandela, we are powerful beyond measure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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