Vancouver restaurateur and philanthropist Mark Brand has been shuttling back and forth across the coast since September, when he began serving as a civic-innovation fellow at Stanford University’s “the d.school” (Institute of Design) in Northern California. There, he imparts the knowledge acquired from his efforts to greatly reduce hunger and unemployment among the Downtown Eastside’s homeless and addicted populations. But he remains in daily collaboration with his colleagues at Mark Brand Inc., which owns and operates various enterprises, including the eateries Save on Meats and the Diamond, craft brewer Persephone, and charitable initiatives A Better Life Foundation and the Greasy Spoon fundraising dinner series. The latter invites celebrated chefs to create a four-course meal inspired by diner fare, with proceeds going to the community’s most vulnerable.
Brand returns to Vancouver this week to preside over the 22nd edition of Greasy Spoon (Dec. 19) and to be on the ground as he and others rally for seasonal contributions to Being Hungry Sucks, another charity effort, which aims to raise funds equivalent to 50,000 free meals – distributed via community organizations including Megaphone magazine street vendors, the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective, Youth Unlimited, and others – before Jan. 1. A Better Life will match donations up to $15,000. Last year’s drive raised $138,486, equivalent to 39,567 meals. (A Better Life’s annual goal is to raise enough funds to provide a minimum of 350,000 free meals in the Downtown Eastside.)
“Achieving upward mobility requires many things to fall in place, and all of those things need to happen with a full belly,” says Brand. “Being hungry does suck, and [the initiative’s name] helps all of us to understand, in simple language, the plight of those less fortunate. I speak about this often, and I use the analogy of missing a meal and how that makes you feel. I walk people through their inability during that time, and then ask them how it would be to try to navigate that situation with no money, no fixed address and little to no opportunity.”
Despite the best efforts of his company and many others, and ever-increasing awareness about those hardest hit by Vancouver’s rapid gentrification, Brand admits the plight of DTES residents is now “much worse, and not for lack of effort. It’s heartbreaking to see the dozens of agencies work their fingers bloody and not gain much traction. Our time is now to get together as a community and push hard for safety and opportunity for all of our citizens. It’s our duty.”
Learn more and make a donation at BeingHungrySucks.ca. Buy tickets for the Greasy Spoon Diner at GreasySpoonDiner.com
