{"id":75034,"date":"2024-03-21T14:58:50","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T20:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/?p=75034"},"modified":"2024-03-27T14:37:30","modified_gmt":"2024-03-27T20:37:30","slug":"helping-the-community-never-tasted-so-good","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/03\/21\/helping-the-community-never-tasted-so-good\/","title":{"rendered":"Helping the community has never tasted so good"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_75035\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75035\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75035 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1397\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1-300x205.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1-1024x699.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1-768x524.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-1-1536x1048.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75035\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Kiera Savoie, senior manager of Odyssey Coffeehouse, enjoys a cup of Salty Tokyo Cocoa hot chocolate at SAIT on Thursday, Feb. 29. She created this drink as Odyssey\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s YYC Hot Chocolate Fest. (Photo by Carolina Avendano\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">W<\/span>hen Kiera Savoie asked her employees to try the seaweed hot chocolate she had created, they were reluctant.<\/p>\n<p>The soy-infused caramel drizzle and roasted algae garnish made it seem more like a meal than a treat. It only took them a few sips to realize that the savoury caramel sauce would become Odyssey\u2019s new gem.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot of my staff were surprised that they liked it when I made it for them,\u201d said Savoie, senior manager of Odyssey Coffeehouse at SAIT. \u201cNow some of them put that caramel in all of their regular drinks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">The Salty Tokyo Cocoa, as Savoie named it, was Odyssey\u2019s entry for this year\u2019s YYC Hot Chocolate Fest.<\/p>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">The month-long YYC Hot Chocolate Festival is held every February, and this year&#8217;s winners included:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li data-wp-editing=\"1\">Cup That Runneth Over: Hexagon Caf\u00e9<\/li>\n<li data-wp-editing=\"1\">Best Hot Chocolate: Little Chief Restaurant<\/li>\n<li data-wp-editing=\"1\">Best Spirited Hot Chocolate: Tops Pizza and Steakhouse<\/li>\n<li data-wp-editing=\"1\">Most Creative Hot Chocolate: Telus Spark<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">\u201c(One) dollar from every hot chocolate goes to Meals on Wheels, which helps give meals to those in need,\u201d said Savoie. \u201cIt\u2019s good to be involved in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-wp-editing=\"1\">Odyssey has participated in this city-wide event for several years and won Best Hot Chocolate in 2020 with its Pistachio Rose White Hot Chocolate.<\/p>\n<p>Beyond attracting new customers and bringing the community together, Odyssey\u2019s participation in the YYC Hot Chocolate Fest is motivated by a good cause.<\/p>\n<p>Brittney Edge, marketing and communications coordinator at Meals on Wheels, explained the impact of the YYC Hot Chocolate Fest in combating food insecurity in Calgary.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75038\" style=\"width: 2048px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75038 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1439\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4.jpeg 2048w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4-300x211.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4-1024x720.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4-768x540.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-4-1536x1079.jpeg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brittney Edge, marketing and communications coordinator at Meals on Wheels in Calgary, poses for a picture at the city\u2019s facility. She manages the social media and website for the YYC Hot Chocolate Fest. (Photo by Carolina Avendano\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cAt Meals on Wheels, all of the meals that we send out are at a low cost,\u201d said Edge. \u201cWhen we do these fundraisers, it helps subsidize what we are losing to keep meals affordable for our clients.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, the YYC Hot Chocolate Fest raised more than $100,000 for Meals on Wheels, which, according to Edge, supports their operations.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[The funds] allow us to expand into more schools and do more free programs like our Hot Soup Program, take on more clients, upgrade our kitchen and continue to keep up with the demand, because it\u2019s going up about 10 percent every year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>This year&#8217;s fundraising goal was also increased by 10 per cent and, according to Edge, the response they have received this year is a hopeful sign. \u201cWe are getting quite a lot of feedback this year, so we are expecting to hopefully hit that goal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>The YYC Hot Chocolate Fest began in 2011 as an event that included 10 local businesses and raised $5,000.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were years when we didn\u2019t have much interest or business willing to sign up,\u201d said Edge.<\/p>\n<p>Today, it has become an annual tradition that sees more than 100 businesses participate and raises hundreds of thousands of dollars.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBecause of the buzz it has generated for the past 14 years, it\u2019s become a great way for Calgarians to go out and discover little caf\u00e9s that they might have not known about,\u201d said Edge.<\/p>\n<p>They hope to expand it to cities like Okotoks and Airdrie next year and, in the long-term, make it an Alberta-wide event.<\/p>\n<p>If you didn&#8217;t participate, keep an eye out for the new \u2013 and rare \u2013 flavours coming next year. If you did, rest assured that the extra calories you earned were not in vain.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_75039\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-75039\" style=\"width: 1295px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-75039 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1295\" height=\"2048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5.jpeg 1295w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5-190x300.jpeg 190w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5-648x1024.jpeg 648w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5-768x1215.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/word-image-75034-5-971x1536.jpeg 971w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1295px) 100vw, 1295px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-75039\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jamaica Khor, barista at Odyssey, prepares a cup of Salty Tokyo Cocoa hot chocolate on Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024. (Photo by Carolina Avendano\/The Press)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>In February, drinking hot chocolate not only helped SAIT students stay warm, but it also helped combat food insecurity in Calgary.  <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/2024\/03\/21\/helping-the-community-never-tasted-so-good\/\" title=\"Helping the community has never tasted so good\">[ READ MORE ]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":882,"featured_media":75035,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_ef_editorial_meta_text_assignment-slug":"YYC Hot Chocolate Fest Here at SAIT CAD","footnotes":""},"categories":[1431,13,2,510,1583],"tags":[110,1812,1810,1811],"class_list":{"0":"post-75034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-food-and-nutrition","8":"category-news","9":"category-campus-2","10":"category-saitsa","11":"category-seasonal","12":"tag-calgary","13":"tag-food-insecurity","14":"tag-hot-chocolate","15":"tag-yyc-hot-chocolate-fest"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/882"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75034"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75034\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75972,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75034\/revisions\/75972"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saitjournalism.ca\/thepress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}