Turn your dining out at the Fergus A&W into helping out the Centre Wellington (CW) Food Bank.

Mealshare, a social enterprise that is on a mission to help end youth hunger, has secured a partnership with all the A&W Canada locations across the country.

Heather Laird, community leader for Mealshare in Hamilton said the partnership between Mealshare and A&W Canada has a goal of sharing 1.2 million meals to youth, per year.

“When we stretch that across the 1,000 locations across the country, that including the Fergus location, we’re looking to share about 1,200 out of the year, so, we’re looking at about 100 meals a month, that will then transfer into meals given to your local CW Food Bank,” Laird said.

Laird stressed that even though the goal for A&W Canada is 100 meals per month, it’s only because it’s their first year doing the partnership with Mealshare, but there is no cap.

“Really, the opportunity is there for as many meals as the Fergus community wants to share with the CW Food Bank,” Laird said.

Laird said the partnership works in two ways, customers can visit the Fergus A&W location and order a cheddar bacon uncle burger combo on a Monday, which turns into one meal for a youth in the Fergus community.

“And then if you’re not available on Monday, or if you do go on a Monday and the cheddar bacon uncle burger combo isn’t your thing, you can order anything off the menu, and just say, ‘make it a mealshare,’ they just add [one] dollar to your bill, [and] that will also share a meal with your CW Food Bank,” Laird said.

“So, the way we allow our partners to receive their funds is [the] A&W location in Fergus will report to our billing team, and then in turn, we then share […] [those] funds with your local CW Food Bank,” Laird said.

Fred Aleksandrowicz, managing director at the Centre Wellington (CW) Food Bank said he’s feeling on top of the world about the partnership.

“When anytime anybody wants to support the people we deal with here, that to me is awesome,” Aleksandrowicz said.

Aleksandrowicz said in the first couple of months, he will use the funds and put them back into the community by buying gift cards from the Fergus A&W, so families will be able to have a treat once in a while.

He added that in the future his plan is to buy fruits and vegetables with the funds from Mealshare, as the majority of the donations he receives are non-perishables.

Fred Aleksandrowicz, managing director at the CW Food Bank: