Pur & Simple brings breakfast to Kelowna Women's Shelter

Photo: Contributed

(L to R): Pur & Simple franchisee Amanda Henley, Kelowna Women's Shelter programs and services director Michelle Dickie and Kelowna Women's Shelter executive director Allison Mclauchlan.

Pur & Simple franchises were just getting into the swing of performing charitable acts within their communities when the COVID-19 pandemic basically brought everything to a standstill.

Now that life is returning to normal, Pur & Simple franchises across the country are revving up their kind ways.

One such event took place on Thursday morning at Kelowna Women’s Shelter Transition House, which accepts women and children who are fleeing domestic violence. The number of domestic violence incidents increased during the pandemic, so Kelowna’s Pur & Simple franchise owners, Ryan and Amanda Hedley, figured a breakfast at Kelowna Women’s Shelter was a great way to support the community.

Pur & Simple, which is located near the corner of Banks Road and Harvey Avenue, brought many of its delicious breakfast offerings for the women and children to enjoy. Kelowna Women’s Shelter is a safe place of refuge for women and their children. As an organization, its mission is to help women and children live in safe and equitable communities free from abuse, which further reinforces its vision to help break the cycle of domestic abuse.

“This is a goal for 2023, to be a lot more involved in the community,” Pur & Simple founder Ritou Maloni says. “Be more hands on and personable, and support different charities that really touch each franchise partner.”

The Kelowna franchise simply got started on that 2023 goal a little early on Thursday morning, providing a delicious meal and a ray of sunshine for shelter residents.

Each franchise will be encouraged to support its own charities, as Maloni says, and there will be a national campaign coming as well.

“We had all these plans for 2021 and 2022 that we were going to do,” Maloni says. “We were going to find an organization that touches everybody across Canada, but then everything kind of got stopped because of the pandemic, and we never really got back on track.”

Pur & Simple will always be there for Kelowna Women’s Shelter, which is gearing up for a couple of busy months. November will feature its annual Purple Ribbon campaign to bring awareness to National Family Violence Prevention Month, and its annual Christmas campaign to drive fundraising and bring awareness to the needs of the organization.

The shelter also recently collaborated with a local film company to produce a video to showcase what the organization is all about and whom it helps.

Pur & Simple offers delectable breakfast and lunch menus, which means the restaurant hours allow its employees to have a work-life balance. That means workers have more time to give back to their communities if they so choose.

“We try to build a really good environment for people to work and hours of operation that kind of give people the opportunity to still own their day,” Maloni says. “A lot of other restaurant groups can't say that because the hours are just very late.”

Photo: Contributed

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