The Potluck Café Society has opened its doors at a new location in Vancouver, taking on a much larger space to adapt to its expanded role as a social enterprise caterer—and marking a legacy of more than 20 years of service to the Downtown Eastside.
The brand-new premises at 298 East Hastings St, on the ground floor of a 12-story mixed use building, will serve as Potluck’s catering service and culinary training hub that has attracted loyal supporters from across Vancouver since 2001.
“The move to this larger, state-of-the-art facility will allow us to increase our capacity and our impact in the Downtown Eastside,” says Naved Noorani, Executive Director of the Potluck Café Society. “With a larger space and additional staff, we will be able to produce significantly more meals per week for residents of the Downtown Eastside community.”
The new Potluck Cafe Society facility designed by Perkins&Will, replaces the smaller original premises in the Portland Hotel at 30 West Hastings Street. The catering business that has been so popular among offices and events will continue to grow in scope, funding Potluck Café Society’s social programs and fulfilling its mandate as a social enterprise that invests catering revenue into the community social programs that are integrated into its daily operations.
The move to the larger facility gives the organization an opportunity to diversify, and double its number of new hires and trainees from among people in the Downtown Eastside, who face barriers
to traditional employment.
During the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Potluck has helped produce and distribute over 250,000 meals to Downtown Eastside residents through a consortium of private and social enterprises, with funding from individual donations, grants, and the City of Vancouver.
Since opening its doors in 2001, Potluck has provided more than 325,000 hours of employment resulting in over $4 million in wages and facilitated serving over 600,000 nutritious meals to residents of the Downtown Eastside.
1 Comment
Naved Noorani,
What an awesome big facility!
Congrats and best wishes to success in this new location!