Calgary man starts pay-it-forward mobile kitchen, offering hot soup, slices of pie and 'dignity'

When stopping by Tyler Melnyk's food cart, called No Fixed Address, there are two ways to pay for a bowl of soup.

For those who have the means, they can pay as normal.

For those who don't, they can offer a "Huggabowl"pin instead. It represents a donated bowl of soup left behind for someone who needs it.

"I don't want people to have to go through the indignity of identifying their social situation at the moment," Melnyk said in an interview onThe Homestretch. "When that token is passed to me, it's a form of payment."

Melnyk has operated his food cart in Olympic Plaza, located downtown, for just under two months now. He's given out more than 60 litres of soup so far, with the majority poured out as Huggabowls.

People can purchase the pins when buying their own bowl of soup, or just on their own. They can either leave it behind for a stranger or bring it to someone in their own life who needs a hand.

Several factors pushed Melnyk to start the social venture: his father's own journey with homelessness, his volunteer work and his background as a teacher in Calgary.

"I just kind of applied all my skills together, and I found the problem that I could solve was food with dignity," he said.

"Giving someone a granola bar on a night of 20, I mean, it doesn't have that same panache that you could say to somebody, 'Look, I care about you, here's a hug from me, and I'm going to give it to you in the form of this bowl. And this bowl is a hot, nutritious meal that will satisfy you. It will keep you going and it will warm you up.'"

The soup itself whether it's turkey vegetable, chicken noodle or potato back bacon is prepared by the owner and executive chef at Saffron Catering, Dean Mitchell.

Melnyk found him through the Leftovers Foundation, a Canadian food rescue charity. Mitchell works with them to divert food waste and prepare low-cost dishes for different organizations.

He hasworked out a similar arrangement with Melnyk, offering the soups at a discounted rate. Mitchell says he's basically donating his time.

"Instead of being at home with my family, I'm at the kitchen making soup," Mitchell said.

"My feeling is you should give something back to community. There's a lot of us that have the luxury of being able to feed our family, but there's a lot of people that don't."

LISTEN | Tyler Melnyk describes why he wanted to start his business:

To make the arrangement work, Mitchell searches for the most affordable ingredients to create large batches of soup.

Those ingredients change week to week, but it could mean finding sweet potatoes on sale and mixing them with some blemished apples.

"We go through the produce we clean up the bad spots off the apples and cut the cores out and basically blend it together to create a soup. So sometimes it's, 'What have we got?' That's what goes in it."

Melnyk wants to run his cart as a business. He wants to show that you can make a profit while helping others.

"It's not good enough to wait for someone else to make that difference."

'Doing something good'

Pie Junkie, a Calgary bakery focused on providing fresh products and producing zero waste, is also partnered with No Fixed Address.

Until recently, they haddonated their surplus product to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a Catholic not-for-profit charity.

Now, they split it in half to support Melnyk's venture. It's a way of doing good, said bakery co-owner Nancy Goemans. It's also a way to support their business, as Melnyk will purchase their leftover goods, also for a discounted rate.

"We don't have a lot of margin because we waste so quickly and so it covers a percentage of our loss and we're doing something good with it," Goemans said.

The bakery will also donate varying amounts of pies.

Goemans encourages any other business in the food industry to consider what's happening with their excess product. If it's still a quality item, it shouldn't be ending up in the garbage, she said.

"I think it's really important that people are able to get quality food at a reasonable price, or for free, with dignity, because we can all end up in surprising places very quickly."

For now, the mobile kitchen is stationed at Olympic Plaza, but Melnyk hopes to bring it around the city to wherever it's needed most.

It's operating Thursdays and Fridays from 5 to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m.

Melnyk said he hasseen an outpouring of supportand an eagerness from those around him to make change.

"It doesn't have to be a huge thing," he said. "You never know how much it means to someone, and you don't need to stick around to find out. Just do it."