Our Impact: 2024 Highlights
17,500
pay-it-forward meals from December 2023-September 2024
5,460
volunteer hours
3,500
meals provided to the CMHA Street Team to feed encampment residents
How do your donations make a difference? Our 2024 Annual Report has all the answers. In this report, you'll find a look back at the last ten years. And some stories that showcase the remarkable things that you’ve made possible. You help make 541 a space where everyone is welcome around the table.
ABOUT
Our Purpose
All Together at the Table: A Welcoming Space for Connection, Community, and Good Food
What we do
541 Eatery & Exchange is a non-profit pay-it-forward cafe working to help our neighbours overcome the impacts of isolation, poverty, and injustice by cultivating a community of mutuality in our neighbourhood. Inspired by our Christian values, we are dedicated to welcoming all our neighbours inclusive of their circumstances, identity, and status.
Our Values
Community
Sharing Life at the Table
We nurture, celebrate, and care for physical, spiritual, and relational experience.
Hospitality
Extending Welcome
We welcome individuals to sit at the table as they are. We cooperate and collaborate with community partners, encouraging and working with them to use the space generously.
Belonging
Knowing Your Name
We value the desire to know and be known, encouraging, and supporting each individual’s hope and courage.
Advocacy
Speaking out/with/for Each Other
We support our team and our neighbours in their efforts to bring greater joy, hope, and justice to our world.
Our Strategic Plan
541 Eatery & Exchange has paused, considered, and paved a path forward to sustainable operations and community building within the Hamilton community. We’re sharing our three ‘strategic themes’ — core commitments of what we want 541 to be all about for the years to come. We invite you to join us on the journey forward!
Meet the Leadership Team
Justin Eisinga
Executive Director
Eric O’Neil
Youth Program Coordinator
Joshua Fumo
Hospitality Manager
Ameriga Alonzo
Donor Engagement Coordinator
Cath Craig
Volunteer Coordinator