As you likely know by now, The Dale loves neighbourhood partnerships, including our connections with the many organizations based out of 201 Cowan Avenue. One of our more recent connections is with a not-for-profit social enterprise called Aangen.
Aangen’s “All Dried Up” program is located in the kitchen right next to The Dale’s office in the basement of 201. In this kitchen, a crew of staff works hard creating healthy meals, which they then dehydrate and package into single-serving portions. The idea is to create very healthy and easy-to-prepare dishes for people with limited access to kitchen facilities– all one needs is some hot water to rehydrate the meal!
This past autumn, The Dale was asked if we would like to apply for a grant from the United Church, in partnership with Aangen. The idea was simple: Aangen would support The Dale in the grant-writing process, the United Church’s “Embracing the Spirit” committee would (hopefully) provide a grant to The Dale, with which The Dale would purchase meals from Aangen to distribute in the community.
This seemed like a great opportunity, on many levels: The Dale community could potentially receive hundreds of meals, while supporting a low-barrier and innovative employment opportunity. So, we applied… and received a $5000 grant!!!
Over the next 12 months, we’ll be purchasing a total of 625 meals from Aangen, and we couldn’t be more thrilled 🙂 One of the best parts about this partnership is that the administrative/delivery costs are extremely low… We just need to walk five steps to the kitchen, pick up a box of meals, and walk five steps back to our office!
We are so grateful– to the United Church of Canada and to Aangen! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it (many times) again… Yay for parternships!!
joannacatherinemoon 
What a great idea!!