Poutine With Purpose

Everyone can get behind poutine and poutine for a good cause is just too good to pass up. Mealshare hosted Victoria’s inaugural Poutine With Purpose week, in which participating restaurants created enticing poutine dishes, donating $2 for every meal sold to the growing food charity.

Mealshare aims to eradicate youth hunger by engaging restaurants to offer Mealshare menu items. Every time you purchase a Mealshare menu item for yourself, you will also be providing a meal to a youth in need. You may have seen their logo on menus around town at Tacofino, Floyd’s Diner, Bubby’s Kitchen, The Oswego Hotel, Origin Bakery, Lido or through Open Water Catering.

The founder’s of Mealshare came together in 2013 after learning that eight million Canadians dine out every single day, while over one million youth are food insecure. Connecting Canadian’s love of dining with the straightforward aim of helping to better allocate food to those in need was the idea that set the wheels in motion.

Poutine With A Purpose was a weeklong fundraiser that took place over the week of October 16th-22nd and saw over 20 restaurants participate in the event. In true Victoria fashion, many of these restaurants went above and beyond to create some truly outstanding interpretations of the classic Canadian dish.

Agrius’s had a rich poutine balanced with some acidic flavour in their Sauerkraut Poutine Hash with double fried hash-browns, cheese curds, gravy, sauerkraut, and garlic breadcrumb. The Northern Quarter went all out for, featuring three poutines, including Northern Quarter Poutine with frites, cheese curds, and smoked pork gravy; Lamb Poutine with braised lamb neck, cheddar beer sauce and frites; and a Breakfast Poutine with frites, cheese curds, poached eggs and garlic miso hollandaise. Bodega Tapas and Wine Bar did a delectable Papas Supremas with roasted potatoes with garlic aioli, topped with Serrano ham, a soft-boiled egg, and shaved manchego cheese.

The Q at the Fairmont Empress Hotel naturally went high-end with a Truffled Duck Poutine with duck confit, poached duck egg, shaved truffles and gravy. And not to be outdone, the Blue Crab served up a Winter Lobster Poutine with fresh lobster, mornay sauce, Quebec curds and yam fries. It seems as though a little healthy competition has been brewing around this tasty common purpose and Mealshare Community Leader, Lori Elder, revealed that a Poutine Cup would not be out of the question in years to come.

Poutine With A Purpose enjoyed a huge success this year and Mealshare hopes that some of these restaurants will join their ranks on a more permanent basis. The event will certainly be back next year so you have plenty of time to plan your poutine-hopping restaurant week that will satisfy your very Canadian cravings while giving back to a great cause.

Learn more about Mealshare here

Learn more about Poutine with a Purpose here

Pictured: left – Bodega Bar right – Northern Quarter