Our goal is to empower mental health consumers in a supportive environment that will allow them to overcome barriers to employment, provide long-term self-sustaining income and apply their creativity and skills in managing a business.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Lunch Delivery Service is to empower mental health consumers to create supportive employment that equally values the three bottom lines:

Empowerment and confidence building Health and wellness Profit and employment

Social Mission

 

By building a viable business, we can create a sustainable long-term employment and help foster the reintegration and rehabilitation of mental health consumer.  The Lunch Delivery Service will provide meaningful and flexible employment and training opportunities for participants while promoting mental wellness and empowerment.

The Lunch Delivery Service will help increase the income of people who have barriers to employment in the past and help reduce the reliance on social assistance for those not on disability.  A further goal will be to promote understanding and awareness of mental health issues in the wider community.

Business Model

 

The Lunch Delivery Service business will both hire and empower mental health consumers. This venture has the ability to be sustainable over the long term so that it can provide supported self-employment for mental health consumers. Participants will be empowered to make decisions about their individual work and role within the Lunch Delivery Service, as well as contribute to planning and development of the business as a whole.

Supporting Organisations

 

Canadian Mental Health Association Vancouver Burnaby (CMHAVB)

Since 1959 CMHA Vancouver-Burnaby has promoted mental wellness and increased understanding of mental health issues through innovative and collaborative approaches in the areas of public education, accessible services and personal empowerment. CMHAVB's Supported Employment Service offers help to individuals who identify as having barriers to employment as a result of mental health experiences or concerns. CMHAVB’s goal is to support clients to gain, or maintain, paid employment in the community. The comprehensive support and unlimited time involvement has proven successful for many service participants who strive to get and keep jobs.

 

Potluck Café Society

The Potluck Cafe Society grew out of a "youth-at-risk" employment initiative in 2000. Potluck Café Society now operate a café on the main level of the acclaimed housing business, the Portland Hotel, in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Potluck Café and Potluck Catering provide permanent employment for Downtown Eastside youth and residents. The café provides nutritious meals to area residents and discounted daily meals to low-income diners in a normal social setting. By the end of 2003, the Potluck Café will have served over 100,000 meals to low income DTES residents.

Catering, café operations and limited fundraising help subsidize these meals.history.html Therefore, revenue growth in these areas means three things: more meals are served to area residents, the café becomes financially self-sustaining, and more sustainable jobs are created. In short, our vision is to help to transform the lives of individuals and of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside community.

 
 
 

News Articles

Glennis MacLeod, business development coordinator for Lunch à la Kart "It's an opportunity for mental health [clients] to become self-employed."
 
Photo by Dan Toulgoet.

Why go out for lunch?

By Sandra Thomas-Staff writer

Imagine a tasty Thai chicken caesar wrap or a roasted veggie wrap delivered fresh to your office at lunchtime for $4.95.

A new business in the Downtown Eastside is offering just that, said Glennis MacLeod, business development coordinator for Lunch a la Kart, who added the program also has the potential to be so much more.

"It's an opportunity for mental health [clients] to become self-employed," she said. "And they'll gain the skills and confidence needed to get back into the work force."

Lunch a la Kart falls under the Canadian Mental Health Association's Consumer Run Business Program, which is designed to assist mental-health clients gain more independence and develop their own businesses. The program helps clients by exploring business ideas, conducting market research and incorporating health management into their plan. Clients employed at Lunch a la Kart are paid $10 an hour and work an average of four hours per day. Besides delivering lunches, clients also learn hands-on skills such as simple accounting and stock taking.

Currently, the business is in its infancy with just one route and one employee delivering lunch to offices and shops in the Main and Hastings area. MacLeod wants to increase that number to include at least 15 routes across the city, employing two to three people per route with extra staff available on an on-call basis.

"To do that we need more businesses to buy more lunches," she said.

The food is supplied by another non-profit program called The Potluck Caf‚ Society, which started in 2000 as a youth-at-risk employment initiative and operates out of the Portland Hotel. Today, Potluck provides full-time training and employment for 10 Downtown Eastside residents. Besides the wraps, Potluck staff create deli-style sandwiches ($4.95), salads ($3.50), hot entrees such as lasagna ($3.50 to $4.95) and a variety of snacks and drinks. There is no charge for delivery and mental-health clients are paid through sponsors of the program, including the CMHA, Vancouver Coastal Health and United Way.

Lunch orders must be placed before 10 a.m. of the delivery date at 604-562-4353, by fax at 604-683-0071 or e-mail at lunchdelivery@potluckcatering.com.