Breaking Bread

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, the global health crisis forced restaurants around the world to close their dining room doors in an effort to protect citizens and slow the spread of the virus.

Working in hospitality PR for more than a decade, SMC Communications Principal Shelley McArthur Everett knew this unprecedented situation could have a devastating economic impact on her business, her staff and her roster of more than 20 culinary clients. With the restaurant landscape completely disrupted in the wake of the pandemic, she quickly pivoted her business model and redirected her team’s efforts towards supporting small, independent foodservice providers in their time of need.

Following a sleepless night and a 24-hour period of collaborative brainstorming, McArthur Everett and the SMC team launched a full-scale grassroots movement to support Vancouver’s hospitality industry on March 13, 2020. In a matter of hours, the team had developed the Breaking Bread campaign concept, built a website and enlisted 23 inaugural restaurant partners.

THE PLAN

MISSION: Urge public support of local, independent restaurants and the hospitality industry at large during the COVID-19 crisis, and beyond.

STRATEGY: Build, expand and promote a free online portal designed to connect small restaurants, bars, breweries and food and beverage businesses with consumers across the country and encourage Canadians to discover takeout and delivery options, meal kits, groceries, specialty menus and services and more in their local neighbourhoods.

WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT & GRAPHIC DESIGN

Once the Breaking Bread concept was born, SMC’s digital team brought the brand to life by designing a custom logo and unique visual identity for the initiative.
The Breaking Bread website started as an initial landing page to provide some quick facts on the campaign but quickly evolved into a custom-built online hub.
Today, the user-friendly platform is updated daily with new business listings and has undergone a continuous series of upgrades to improve features and functionality, including enhanced search tools that allow visitors to search by service category, cuisine-type, geographic area and more.
SMC design experts also built a custom digital newsletter template featuring branded fonts and graphics so that the Breaking Bread team could communicate regularly with restaurant partners about the campaign, support from newly onboarded sponsors, and new website features.

MEDIA RELATIONS

In order to get the word out, the SMC media relations team prepared and distributed targeted press releases and sent one-on-one pitches to a targeted list of print, digital, radio and television outlets in local markets and on a national scale.
Existing media connections were leveraged to secure radio and television interviews for the Breaking Bread founders and restaurant owners to maximize exposure for the campaign and increase public awareness about the crisis facing the restaurant industry at large.

Breaking Bread Instagram and Facebook accounts were established in an effort to further encourage public support for hospitality workers and increase exposure for the online platform.
With a strong focus on community building and user engagement, the Breaking Bread social accounts feature a mix of crowd-sourced content from independent food and beverage establishments across the country, in addition to custom graphics designed to inform the public about the challenges facing the industry.

Operating as a non-profit initiative, Breaking Bread launched a fundraising campaign to secure financial donations from corporate sponsors and industry partners to help cover expenses and the costs associated with developing the platform.

THE RESULTS

What started as a local initiative featuring 23 Vancouver-based restaurants has grown into a national platform with listings for more than 2,000 foodservice suppliers from coast to coast.
Breaking Bread has been featured in dozens of news stories in local and national media outlets, including CTV, Global Television, CBC Radio, The Globe and Mail, Vancouver Sun, and Eat North, and has garnered over five million media impressions.
SMC has secured dozens of press interviews for restaurant partners to generate public awareness about the current crisis facing the industry.
In a period when many PR agencies were closing their doors and laying off staff, McArthur Everett ensured job security for all seven full-time SMC staff members and brought on three additional employees to work on the Breaking Bread expansion.
Breaking Bread was named a first-place winner at the Canadian Search Awards in the ‘Best Use of Search - Third Sector / Not for Profit' category. During the awards presentation, judges described Breaking Bread as “a timely campaign that provided an awesome response to a devastating financial situation for the Canadian foodservice industry.