2022 BUSINESS OF GOOD AWARDS: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT. AND THE WINNER IS.....EPICURE! Amelia Warren never planned to go into the family business. “In our family, it was always, Find a way to give back,” says the CEO of food maker and retailer Epicure. “I always thought that would be through charitable work.”
So Warren worked with local and national nonprofits focused on youth empowerment and artistic expression. Returning to her hometown of Victoria for the summer of 2007, she launched a foundation at the request of her mother, Epicure founder Sylvie Rochette. “I got super excited about how business could play a role in making the world a better place,” she recalls. Two years later, Rochette asked Warren to run the business because she needed to step away for a while.
Epicure specializes in meal kits, blended herbs and spices, and other products that help people quickly prepare healthy food. It sells through independent consultants, many of them busy mothers. “The ethos of our business is about helping people eat better, because we really believe that if you eat better, you can live better,” Warren says.
When she joined North Saanich–based Epicure, which Rochette founded in 1997, annual revenue was $25 million. With help from a recent U.S. expansion, sales have since crossed nine figures. Throughout North America, the 200-employee company now has some 25,000 consultants to whom it paid $40 million in 2021.
Epicure has built on that reach with its Buy A Meal. Share a Meal. program. “For every product you buy, we’re donating meals to Feeding America or Food Banks Canada,” Warren says. Last year, Epicure gave away almost a million meals. It also has a disaster relief program that makes in-kind donations to afflicted communities.
The Epicure Foundation supports research, education and capacity-building projects that address key food security issues in Canada. It’s made financial and in-kind donations to more than 50 grassroots efforts, from community gardens to nutrition programs. “We try to make those [initiatives] connected to the communities that our consultants are based in,” Warren says. The foundation, whose donations total more than $810,000, has helped some 195,000 families.
Through its Fundraiser Program, which donated about $113,000 last year, Epicure backs community groups, sports teams, education programs and other charitable causes in Canada and the U.S.
So Warren worked with local and national nonprofits focused on youth empowerment and artistic expression. Returning to her hometown of Victoria for the summer of 2007, she launched a foundation at the request of her mother, Epicure founder Sylvie Rochette. “I got super excited about how business could play a role in making the world a better place,” she recalls. Two years later, Rochette asked Warren to run the business because she needed to step away for a while.
Epicure specializes in meal kits, blended herbs and spices, and other products that help people quickly prepare healthy food. It sells through independent consultants, many of them busy mothers. “The ethos of our business is about helping people eat better, because we really believe that if you eat better, you can live better,” Warren says.
When she joined North Saanich–based Epicure, which Rochette founded in 1997, annual revenue was $25 million. With help from a recent U.S. expansion, sales have since crossed nine figures. Throughout North America, the 200-employee company now has some 25,000 consultants to whom it paid $40 million in 2021.
Epicure has built on that reach with its Buy A Meal. Share a Meal. program. “For every product you buy, we’re donating meals to Feeding America or Food Banks Canada,” Warren says. Last year, Epicure gave away almost a million meals. It also has a disaster relief program that makes in-kind donations to afflicted communities.
The Epicure Foundation supports research, education and capacity-building projects that address key food security issues in Canada. It’s made financial and in-kind donations to more than 50 grassroots efforts, from community gardens to nutrition programs. “We try to make those [initiatives] connected to the communities that our consultants are based in,” Warren says. The foundation, whose donations total more than $810,000, has helped some 195,000 families.
Through its Fundraiser Program, which donated about $113,000 last year, Epicure backs community groups, sports teams, education programs and other charitable causes in Canada and the U.S.