Donating by dining: New Sydney café set to open this month will fund Meals on Wheels
A Better Bite Café is scheduled to open in the newly renovated The Convent arts and culture hub on the New Dawn Enterprises campus in north end Sydney at the end of this month
SYDNEY — Customers at a new downtown café will be providing affordable meals to people in need while they sip espressos or eat gourmet pizza.
A Better Bite Café is scheduled to open at the end of this month at the newly renovated Convent building on the New Dawn Enterprises campus in Sydney’s north end.
Claire Turpin, manager of the non-profit social development agency’s Better Bite Community Kitchen, which runs the New Dawn Meals on Wheels program, said all of the money the café takes in will help the volunteer-driven organization deliver approximately 12,500 hot and nutritious meals to the doors of people in the community each year.
“The café is specifically for us to subsidize the cost of meals for seniors,” Turpin told the Cape Breton Post. “To produce the meals we’re producing, it’s much more expensive than what we charge our clients. We only charge our clients $6.50 and we have a subsidy program if they can’t afford that $6.50 that drops it down to $4.50 and we have about a third of our clients in the subsidy program. So increasing the cost of the meals isn’t an option to us, so whatever profits we generate from the café will be invested back into our meals on wheels program.”
The café was originally set to open last summer but construction delays with the estimated $15-million Convent project at the corner of George and Nepean streets, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushed that date back to July 29.
The new arts and culture hub in the former 130-year-old Sisters of Notre Dame convent will give A Better Bite Community Kitchen staff a larger, more modern facility, and offer more than 20 art studios and workspaces to artists and groups.
Turpin said the café will seat about 45 people, including the outdoor balcony.
It will initially operate weekdays from 8 a.m.-8 p.m. with a possible break from 2-4 p.m. if it’s slow. Along with brewed beverages and smoothies, they will offer beer on tap and a selection of regional wines. They will begin with a small menu that includes soups, salads and homemade pizza in the day, followed by gourmet pizza and charcuterie boards featuring a variety of meats, cheeses and breads in the evening for the after-work crowd. There will also be vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options.
“It will be a spot to come and have a quick munch,” Turpin said, adding that patrons will essentially be volunteering with the meals on wheels program.
“You’re helping out. I always say, we’ll have people volunteer for the program but if you’re too busy to volunteer, or you don’t have time to come help us make the meals or deliver the meals, come get your lunch from us and any profit that we make from your lunch is going to help us make meals affordable to seniors.”
