SCROLL
WE'VE SERVED
5.1 Millions +
Meals
AND COUNTING
ALLOW ME TO
Reintroduce
MYSELF
Hospitality is in my DNA. From business practice to event design, facilitation, teaching and the stages I speak on, it is essential to take care of each other. In this way, we may hold space for the principles of radical inclusion and everyday advocacy at the core of my mission.
Balancing business and purpose in my cooking, systems design, teaching and love or community, I believe that feeding people and re-thinking the ways we get it done will change the world in a way that is essential to our future.
Take a
look
LISTEN
Podcast
And a candid view
of the work
THE
Work
It all starts with food. Food is our last best hope to stay connected as a global community. Food is a conduit to the love we need to rethink our systems, drive change, and engage those who need us most.
I care deeply about humans.
As the individual and as the collective, if we are unhealthy, our community is unhealthy. If our community is unhealthy, our environment is unhealthy. And if our environment is unhealthy? Our planet is unhealthy and so is our future.
This ideology is the focus of my teaching and is fundamental in providing reliable, dignified access to food security with
TOKEN
PROGRAM
175,000+
TOKENS REDEEMED SINCE 2012
Launched in 2012, the Token Program is a benchmark of everyday advocacy with A Better Life Foundation. As a closed currency, tokens are purchased and either directly distributed to recipients or donated to a local community outreach organization including Atira & the Vancouver Police Department to distribute to recipients on behalf of the the individual or group who purchased them. The token itself is redeemable for a sandwich or bowl of soup on-site at A Better Life Foundation's headquarters in the heart of Vancouver, British Columbia's Downtown Eastside - a community known for it's large population of folks enduring symptoms of poverty and homelessness.
DAILY MEAL
PROGRAM
3100 +
MEALS SERVED EVERY SINGLE DAY
7 days a week, 365 days a year (yes, including Christmas, especially on Christmas) our kitchen team produces over 1,700 meals that are distributed via a 0 emissions bicycle courier to Vancouver, British Columbia's most vulnerable populations throughout the Downtown Eastside. Daily meals help ensure the stability and safety of our neighbours who need it most. By providing a reliable source for folks facing dire challenges including poverty, mental illness and substance addiction, these meals provide structure and a point of contact with those who care, organically providing check-in points and moments of connection. By providing daily meals, we seek to enable upward mobility through food security.
HOLDING SPACE &
Sharing the work
WHERE
I 've Been
LATELY
As human beings, we are hard-wired to care about each other. I believe this with my whole being and it's been my life's work to bring this message around the world in teachings, facilitations, business practice and making food from the heart.
I've been around the world many times over and if there's any takeaway it's this: people still make the place. Click through each one of my engagements below to read about them and the necessary, urgent and immediate action we must take together.
And keep an eye out for the food. Always, the food.
TUFTS Nutrition Partnership
ICWF
Kauai Partnership
School Food Program Launch
Food For Good Tour BC
EEEEEEATSCON
NYC
Partnership
FOOD BANK NYC - 7 Year Celebration
California Grocers Association Partnership
Upward
Kitchens Halifax Launch
TED & Milano Partnership
Better
Season 2
Launch
Token Window Relaunch
Sun
Valley Institute
Climate
Change
Address 2019
UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK
HATCH
Valley De
Bravo Dinner
Better
Season 1
Launch
Pope Francis'
Laudato Si
Challenge
2017
DINNER FOR 400 IN ROME, ITALY
United
Nations
Future Food
Institute 2019
CLIMATE ACTION CHEF AT ICELAND SUMMIT
United
Nations
Future Food
Institute 2019
DINNER FOR 100 IN NEW YORK
City of
Sydney,
Australia
ENTREPRENEUR IN RESIDENCE
World
Conference
2018
POVERTY & FOOD ADDRESS
C2
Conference
Montreal
2016-2017
KEYNOTE SPEAKER
Singularity
University Global
Summit 2018
FUTURE OF FOOD KEYNOTE SPEAKER
TEDX
Vancouver
SPEAKER
BUILDING
Community
IS KEY
Offering an engaging, bold, brutally honest portrayal of hunger, homelessness and addiction today in our communities, I bring my message around the world to break biases, create everyday advocates and build communities around issues we need to solve, now.
Changing the landscape and supporting others in ways they can look at sustainable business models is at the forefront of my keynotes, teaching, design thinking and facilitation.
As a certified Ten Directions Integral Facilitator, I use actionable dialogue to help unstick groups facing deep challenges.
From private workshops to panels and interviewing on stage, I use emergent practices in design thinking and systems innovation deep commitment to holding safe space for thought-provoking conversations.
My time at the Stanford School of design "d.school" and as an adjunct Professor at the University of Southern Carolina reinforced that process is king. In this Design Thinking package available for download, I give the rundown on what I carry in my back pocket - always!
DESIGN
Thinking
IN THE
News
SOCIAL ENTREPRENEUR
MARK BRAND
August 24, 2018
ACTIVATING THE ACTIVIST IN ALL OF US
PODCAST - MARK BRAND IS @CREATETHELOVE MARK GROVES GUEST
LOVE HARD: MARK BRAND | GOOD PEOPLE INTERVIEWS WITH THINKERS, ARTISTS, ACTIVISTS & LUMINARIES AROUND THE WORLD
August 24, 2018
There is Strength
In
Partnership
We are better together. With these friends and family we are able to continue the work of mobilizing spaces of everyday advocacy, radical inclusion and support upward mobility through food security. Click through each logo to learn more about the ways we are making a difference together.