64 BCBusiness april 2016
THE STORY: Even
before graduating from
the University of Victoria
with a bachelor of com-
merce in 2011, Andrew
Hall had been mulling over
the concept for a social
enterprise. Hall and his
cousin Jeremy Bryant had
originally thought to start
a restaurant that would
donate meals to feed the
hungry, but with no food
industry experience, they
opted for a different model.
Their nonprofit Mealshare
partners with restaurants
and charities to provide
meals for those in need
based on a buy one, donate
one basis. Restaurants
feature Mealshare items
on their menus and donate
money each time the item
is ordered. Mealshare
then distributes the cash
to charities dedicated to
feeding the hungry. Hall
admits leaving a career-
track job for a startup was
a risk (he worked a year
at Deloitte straight out
of school), but it was one
worth taking. "We kept
asking ourselves: what are
we going to look back on
and be proud of?"
MARKERS OF
SUCCESS: Since launch-
ing in 2013, Mealshare
has provided more than
500,000 meals from partner
restaurants that include the
Original Joe's and Famoso
Neapolitan Pizzeria chains,
as well as 150 independent
restaurants, to charity
partners including Save the
Children, KidSafe and the
Breakfast Club of Canada.
Hall plans to expand into
the U.S. in the next three
years, grow its employee
base from five to 15 people
and provide four million
meals a year, up from
600,000 now. –J.B.
andrew hall
co-founder,
mealshare aid
society
age: 26
30
under
30
A little-known fact
about me is…
"I'm 113th in the world at Beer
Mile [an extreme sport that
requires drinking a full-sized
beer, running a quarter mile,
then repeating the process
three times]. I hope to go to the
world championships this year"
a n d r e w h a l l
d a n i e l e b e r h a r d
