Yogurt brand Iogo has kicked off “Supporting Goodness,” a new program that aims to drive awareness about the role collective kitchens play in 2,000 communities across Canada, as well as to encourage Canadians to support the collective kitchen movement.

Collective kitchens are spaces that allow lower-income Canadians to get together with members of their community to prepare affordable meals for their families and learn cooking skills.

The program will see the Ultima Foods brand make donations to collective kitchens, including the Stop Community Food Centre in Toronto, and to Community Food Centres Canada to support the opening of kitchens in Halifax and Calgary. Ultima will also encourage its employees to volunteer in kitchens, and will donate the proceeds from the meals they cook.

Targeting adults above the age of 18, the program is being supported primarily by a national TV campaign that was produced in partnership with Shaw Media and Radio-Canada, with additional creative provided by Dentsu Bos.

Iogo teamed up with Shaw and Food Network chef Lynn Crawford, who is featured in 30-second spots, as well as in an informative video series on the Food Network website. The webseries follows Crawford into collective kitchens, where she helps cook and shares stories with the people who rely on them.

In French Canada, meanwhile, Iogo’s campaign relies on 30-second spots that feature personalities from Radio-Canada programming.

To further support the initiative, Iogo is hosting additional content on its website, and a tab with recipes from collective kitchens on Facebook.

Diane Jubinville, director, consumer and public relations, Ultima Foods, tells MiC that it was important to leverage popular TV personalities like Crawford to get the conversation about collective kitchens started, and drive immediate broad awareness of “Supporting Goodness” before pushing to online and social media.

She adds that the “Supporting Goodness” program is different for Iogo, because it’s not about engaging potential consumers with a commercial message, but rather about positioning the brand and building its identity by linking it to the cause of collective kitchens. She says Iogo chose to align itself with collective kitchens because they share the same values of providing people with healthy and affordable foods.

The “Supporting Goodness” program will run for the next year.

Photo from left: Gerry Doutre, president and CEO, Ultima Foods; Rachel Gray, executive director, The Stop Community Food Centre; Scott MacNeil, chef, The Stop; Nick Saul, president and CEO, Community Food Centres of Canada; and Food Network chef Lynn Crawford.