Mount Royal University alumna Tianna Going, left, with Inspired Go co-founders Jonathan Karwacki and Derek Rucki.
As Alberta's health-care workers face some of the most difficult working conditions of their careers, a Mount Royal alumnus-founded business is working to help make their lives a little easier.
Throughout the province, entrepreneurs have been shifting their businesses quickly to continue to provide service in a safe manner. Many have dedicated parts of their models to directly respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Derek Rucki's Inspired Go is one of those. The Bachelor of Business Administration General Management graduate was busy growing his venture delivering fresh and healthy lunches to office workers all over Calgary when the directive came from Alberta Health Services for people to pack up, work from home and practice social distancing protocols.
Rucki started Inspired Go at the beginning of 2019 with co-founder Jon Karwacki. He explains his motivation as a simple attempt to support healthy eating habits in a busy office environment, and things were going well. With nobody in offices anymore, however, they faced a serious problem. But with plenty of start-up experience under his belt, Rucki is used to making the best of unforeseen circumstances. Along with his colleagues, which consist of three other Mount Royal alumni, the group came up with a way they could pivot to provide contactless home deliveries.
A pre-existing relationship with Alberta Health Services, a building where they used to deliver often, meant they began hearing stories from the frontline workers about how they were coping. And that led to another idea.
"We realized there was a lot more socially that we could be doing here, because these are obviously the people that are keeping everybody else healthy," Rucki says. "And we have this ability or this opportunity to give them one less thing to worry about."
For every ready-to-eat meal box purchased through Inspired Go, the company is donating a free meal to a Calgary health-care worker. In addition to that, Inspired Go has also set up a way for people to donate as many meals as they like.
A community that cares
To date, more than 1,700 meals have been provided, at first directly to hospitals before Alberta Health Services stopped allowing outside deliveries. Now they go right to the health-care worker's front door. "We've had some Calgarians buy over 200 meals just to be directly donated, which is a pretty cool thing to see from the community," Rucki says.
"These health-care workers are doing some of the most important work in our city right now, and they don't have much time to think about how to get a healthy lunch while working a 12-hour shift. We're very grateful to be able to help them stay healthy with our meals and have a small impact on their day. The stories they have shared with our team show that they are dealing with a very different kind of stress and anxiety than many of us. But they have also shared how extremely grateful they are that the Calgary community is here to support them."
Ray DePaul is the director of the Institute for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Mount Royal and has been a valuable mentor to Rucki.
"I was thrilled but not surprised at how quickly Inspired Go pivoted," De Paul says. "I expect they realized that what they do really well is make and deliver healthy meals. So, they knew they had to shift to where the people are in their homes and on the front lines. This ability to adapt to changes in their customer needs or the environment will serve them well when the next challenge hits them."
De Paul says he is pleased with how Rucki tapped into the strong Mount Royal alumni arsenal to help progress his business. Also on the Inspired Go team are Tianna Going, who graduated from the public relations program, Ian Lees, who is a business graduate, and Quentin Ogilvie, another business graduate. All three minored in entrepreneurship.
What's in the box?
Rucki describes Inspired Go as "super local," a claim he can make due to connections made through Karwacki, once an employee of Star Produce, now the parent company of Inspired Go. Star Produce's greenhouse near Lethbridge produces a little over 20 million heads of lettuce a year, which are sold in local grocery stores.
"Inspired Go takes those greens and turns them into meals in partnership with some local top chefs," Rucki says. Choices include salads, wraps, sandwiches, sliced fruit and a week's worth of produce.
"My wife and I truly love receiving our Inspired Go box," says De Paul, who has ordered for his family and donated to health-care workers. "In these challenging times, I seemed to have turned to my comfort food. Unfortunately, I shouldn't eat pasta every day, so getting several meals a week that I can be proud to eat has made me feel like I can splurge on pasta and bread. It turns out I look forward to my Inspired Go salad as much as my spaghetti carbonara."
Rucki says that the gratitude received from health-care workers has been "immense," and the Inspired Go team is trying to share as much of that as they can. "We need for them to be healthy so that we can be healthy, too," Rucki says.
Purchase meals for the frontlines at inspiredgo.ca/feedthefrontlines. Health-care workers may sign up to receive meals at inspiredgo.ca/healthcare.
By Michelle Bodnar
