Glowbal Restaurant Group (GRG) is bolstering its commitment to give back to local communities and charitable causes by providing the food and volunteers for Union Gospel Mission’s annual Summer BBQ and announcing the return of its School Meals For Kids program partnership with Vancouver Firefighter Charities (VFC) in January 2025.
GRG staff and chefs were on hand recently at Oppenheimer Park, volunteering their time to provide thousands of attendees at Union Gospel Mission’s summer celebration with 4,000 barbecued hot dogs and hamburgers, hundreds of pounds of potato salad, countless slices of sheet cake, and more, all of which were donated by GRG. It marked the fifth time that GRG employees have donated their time to provide and cook food for attendees at the annual event.
In January 2025, the restaurant group will also bring back the School Meals For Kids program it launched in 2022 in collaboration with VFC to provide meals to students in need. Last year the culinary teams at Glowbal’s local restaurants (Glowbal, Coast, Italian Kitchen, Black and Blue, The Roof, Riley’s, Five Sails and Trattoria) prepared more than 13,000 nutritious and nourishing meals that were delivered by 50+ off-duty firefighters to secondary school students across the city via VFC’s Snacks For Kids program.
Founded in 2013 in partnership with the Vancouver School Board, Snacks For Kids is a volunteer-led program supported entirely through Vancouver firefighter payroll donations and fundraising events that provides nutritious non-perishable snacks, fresh food and take-home groceries to students across the city.
The costs of the individually packaged meals provided through School Meals For Kids — which included Spaghetti and Meatballs, Oven-Roasted Chicken Thighs with French Onion Style Sauce, Chicken Salad with Herbs, and Beef Bourguignon — were absorbed by GRG.
In total, GRG has provided more than 160,000 meals to charities, events and organizations in the community over past years and aims to expand its reach going forward.
Glowbal Restaurant Group has long been a champion of charitable causes in the community at large and stepped up that support during the pandemic by donating meals to a number of organizations that included Snacks For Kids, Ronald McDonald House BC & Yukon, A Loving Spoonful, Atira Women’s Resource Society, Directions Youth Services and the Kilala Lelum Urban Indigenous Health and Healing Cooperative, among others.
Non-profit organizations and community groups that are interested in partnering with Glowbal Restaurant Group for meal delivery in the Vancouver area are encouraged to contact Glowbal PR representatives Tara Armstrong and Michelle Lan.
For more information about Glowbal Restaurant Group, visit glowbalgroup.com. To learn more about VFC and its fundraising events and initiatives that benefit the community at large, go to vancouverfirefighters.ca.