HATCH Superhero Series: Mark Brand on the beauty of food, compassion, and social enterprise

Mark Brand is one of Canada’s most recognized social entrepreneurs. Having successfully created 11 businesses in Vancouver, he has become a prominent example of a new generation of leadership that focuses on passion and purpose – a power shown in the superhero illustration created by HATCH illustrator Stephen Downer.

During HATCH Experience 2017 in Big Sky, Mark touched on the deeply personal side of his mission to feed more people with integrity, and why our vulnerability is often our greatest strength. 

Mark’s experience at HATCH inspired him and a group of fellow HATCHers to launch a similar token program in Bozeman, Montana with plans to expand to communities across the state.  The Meals for Montana program currently in development is dedicated to feeding our community with integrity.  A simple card/token-for-meal exchange at participating restaurants removes the social stigma often associated with hunger alleviation programs set apart from the general community, and breaks down isolation with the social connections created.  The goal is to make it easy to purchase the cards/tokens in bulk so they can be distributed to the Bozeman Police Department and social resource organizations that deal with the homeless and hungry in our communities every day. The direct token-for-meal exchange becomes a simple way we can alleviate hunger, one personal interaction at a time, #becauseofHATCH.