Community Involvement:
- DREAM Mentorship Program
- Pay it Forward Program
- Shared Harvest Community Garden
The Minga
Upon first glance, The Minga, located in the heart of Dunnville, is a popular café that specialized in plant based foods; however, once you have visited the local hot spot and connected with its founders, it doesn’t take long to realize they are also making waves in the local and global community.
Barb and Reza, the establishment’s founders, aim to provide a space for people to come together and share food, while simultaneously trying to improve their customers’ and the planet’s health. The Minga achieves this by using all organic, locally grown, and fair trade ingredients. The business’s name, “Minga”, means coming together for common good, which is a phrase that is derived from indigenous Ecuadorian language, that the founders picked up through their travels.
The Minga was established in 2014 to provide a meeting place for the organization “Designing Routes to Education and Mentorship” (DREAM), which was created by Reza and Barb Kazemi in 2001. The DREAM program is a mentorship initiative for high school students in Dunnville. DREAM mentors help students finish high school, prepare students for post-secondary education, and give them the skills to become contributing community members as adults. DREAM also provides academic support to all students in need, in addition to offering the mentorship program, and scholarships to graduates of the program.
One of the main social problems that The Minga’s programming aims to address is poverty and hunger. They attempt to move the needle forward on this objective, through their Pay-It-Froward Program, which offers full meals to people that are experiencing food insecurity. By providing an additional support system in Dunnville for individuals struggling with food insecurity, more individuals have been able to keep funds in their pockets for other essentials needs.
The Minga operates as a not-for-profit establishment and focuses on a triple bottom line business model which takes into consideration the environmental, social, and fiscal impacts of their business. In terms of environmental impact, The Minga tries to reduce their carbon footprint through their meal preparation, as they use quality ingredients from local sources. They estimate these efforts reduce the carbon footprint of the customers meal by 50%. The Minga also takes into consideration the social impact of their business and tries to achieve a high standard, by paying their staff a living wage, and focusing on buying fair trade product, which is socially sustainable and helps farmers in developing nations. Their final bottom line is financial, which takes into consideration the business’s financial viability.
So if you have never tried the Minga before, this is your sign to stop by. Not only will you enjoy a delicious meal, but you will feel good supporting a business which is doing great things for their community.
Learn more about starting or moving your business to Haldimand County. Contact us at 905-318-5932 ext. 6331 or email: opportunity@haldimandcounty.on.ca