Making good food for a good cause: catering business supports community meal program.

• Author: Kelly, Lindsay
• Position: CONFERENCE & CONVENTION

If you're looking for someone to cater your next business function, Home of Our Own Catering in Sudbury will fill your stomach with good food and your heart with goodwill.

Launched just over a decade ago, Home of Our Own is the social enterprise arm of Meals on Wheels Sudbury, the nonprofit organization that provides healthy, fresh food to those who are otherwise unable to access nutritious meals.

Meals on Wheels receives about 49 per cent of its funding from the government, but must raise the rest through client fees and fundraising. Staff realized there was lost potential in the kitchen, which went idle after 10:30 a.m. once the food had all been prepped and meals had been delivered to clients, said Kelly Zinger, Meals on Wheels' executive director.

"We use Home of Our Own as a revenue source for Meals on Wheels, so profits earned from the catering events that we host go directly back into Meals on Wheels programming to help keep costs low for our clients," Zinger said.

A rebranding in November 2014 gave Home of Our Own a new website, a new logo, and a new menu, bringing with it a significant increase in revenue. That year, the organization boosted its profits by 158 per cent, earning almost $20,000 more from caterings than it had in 2013.

Zinger said the organization is growing so quickly it had to hire four people in 2015 alone, and it's now looking at plans to expand its kitchen and office space.

"By choosing us, people are also supporting the community," Zinger said. "It's not just for profit generation; it's also to support the people in your community that need help."

More than 400 people are currently using the service, which has become more costly over the last four years, as food costs have risen by 36 per cent.

Home of Our Own will accommodate everything from finger foods for a networking event to a full sit-down dinner. A staff of six, led by co-ordinator Crystal Ayers, can prepare a hearty meat chili or roast beef and gravy, shepherd's pie or salmon loin with dill sauce, minestrone or Mediterranean pasta.

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Clients can also make food requests from off the menu, including to meet special dietary needs.

"If there's something that isn't on the menu that they would like to have, the majority of the time we can most definitely accommodate them," Ayers said. "We've done that on several occasions."

Last year, the organization catered an Indian wedding for more than 100 people and received...