REBUILDING THE DREAM

NO FIXED ADDRESS started as a response to the lack of dignity provided to those suffering with food and housing insecurity. Using a pay it forward model called a Huggabowl, tokens are generated with regular sales, large event bookings or straight up wicked peeps who see the reason to purchase one for $5 in order to cover basic costs of bringing a high hot, nutritious meal safely to the street. Each time a meal is delivered to a friend in need the Huggabowl account is debited, our labour and prep is donated along with the Souperhero who backstopped our food costs.

I bought a little trailer last year, tuned it up and added specifications to meet food handling and operational codes. From February until October I fed thousands of meals, made hundreds of new acquaintances and began to discover more about myself and what drew me to want to help others.

For a brief period in my 20's my father was my home town's homeless population. Being a relativley small area there wasn't the disconnect between the person and the community I see in larger, urban areas where largely transient populations make up our street populations. This was the man who grew up, went to school and raised a family just down the block from where he now slept rough. The types of supports that would have helped didn't exist in our local social eco system. This, in part, was designed to drive people like my dad out, centralizing services into less desirable locales and thereby creating a vaccume effect into Hamilton's downtown and east side.

Once relocated things only grew worse, yes there were services, however, with those came a constant presence of all the things my father needed to escape in order to start working on his recovery.

When I serve the public I do so with radical hospitality, I look at each individual the same, allowing their beauty and story to be shared. Whether some one's wallet expresses their worth does not matter. If there is a Huggabowl token available that individual simply hands me that instead of tapping and they're fed.

I have an amazing community around me. Food producers, influencers, social agencies and volunteers I call my Souperheros, after all, or all started with a warm bowl of soup for the soul. I have happily given my time over the past two years without even considering paying out a salary, instead all revenues have been redirected back into the venture to sustain and grow our operations.

I'm looking to build an all electric version of No Fixed Address to lower the entry points for individuals and like minded social agencies who may consider adding No Fixed Address to their local communities response plan. This model will include an electric powered three wheeled Ape flat bed, custom fabricated rear box that includes self generative power solutions, two 11quart soup Rethermalizers, an Ooni Kari 16 pizza oven, fridge, freezer, double sink, on demand water heater, 160w solar array and inverter as well as over 25L potable water.

Our new model will travel between 40-50km/hr in a 100km radius on 2-3 hours charge time from a standard 120v receptical. As the truck simply sits outside while in operation it is completely self-powering.

I am designing the next shift so that No Fixed Address minimizes labour and organizational capital output, creates a diversified revenue stream and addresses the growing demand for affordability and grassroots initatives aiming to address this housing crisis.

Please visit www.nofixedaddress.ca or check out our Insta page @nofixedaddress_yyc to find out more.

The mission is straight forward. Prove that radical hospitality can be sustained, people matter and that profit is not the only reason businesses exist. We need to demand more than the current model provides, we, the customers, the owners and the recipents are, in tandem, helping make a difference - one meal at a time. That's all I can offer.