When the Illinois Stewardship Alliance first connected with Engrained Brewery & Restaurant, the organization says something caught their eye even more than delicious, locally sourced food.
“We’ve been impressed with the advocacy work Engrained does behind the scenes,” said Molly Gleason, communications manager for Illinois Stewardship Alliance.
“Owners Brent and Melissa advocate and communicate with legislators about how important local food is for communities across the state. Not a lot of restaurants are doing that. We feel so good about recommending Engrained because it’s affordable and almost all locally sourced.”
Engrained not only supports the work of Illinois Stewardship Alliance – a state-wide nonprofit promoting sustainable farming and local food systems – through advocacy. We have also put our support behind the ISA and other community nonprofits with our Flatbread Donation Creation program.
Through Engrained’s Flatbread Donation Creation program, we select a new charity every two months and collaborate with that organization to create a unique flatbread recipe. One dollar is donated to the charity for each of those flatbreads sold.
Last September, Illinois Stewardship Alliance used their flatbread “campaign” as a kickoff event for their Eat Local Challenge (which encourages people to eat local for an entire month), connecting the community with local foods at Engrained.
“We came up with three different options that featured ingredients in season in September, particularly items that you could find at the Old Capitol Farmers Market,” Molly said.
“We asked people vote on Facebook which flatbread they wanted to see. That got a great response, and everyone was really excited to go try the winning recipe at Engrained.”
The winner was dubbed “The Farmers Market Flatbread” and was topped with grilled zucchini, summer squash, sweet corn, bacon, basil and mozzarella.
Molly commended Engrained for its dedication to community involvement and financial support of local initiatives through the Flatbread program.
“It’s a really cool program; restaurants don’t always have that ‘social good’ aspect, but that’s a big part of Engrained’s philosophy,” Molly said. “It’s amazing for them to give community organizations an opportunity to showcase their work and give people the opportunity to support that work through eating a delicious flatbread pizza!”
Is your nonprofit interested in partnering with Engrained for our Flatbread Donation Creation? Simply fill out this form for consideration. Applications are reviewed each October. Check out more of Engrained’s community initiatives here!