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Okotoks brewers fermenting culture of generosity

Holiday campaign raises $3,466 for Okotoks Food Bank
NEWS-Hub Town Food Bank Donation BWC 5173 web
Hub Town Brewing owners Mark and Lisa Watts hold out a cheque for $3,466.25 for the Okotoks Food Bank on Jan. 6. Rather than discounting their merchandise over the holidays, the brewery owners vouched 10 per cent of their sales to the charity.

Giving back is the secret ingredient for an Okotoks brewery.

On Jan. 6, Hub Town Brewing owners Mark and Lisa Watts Hub Town Brewing cut a cheque for $3,466 to the Okotoks Food Bank (OFB).

“Every time we raise money for the food bank it’s always with the same thing in mind: if people don’t have a full belly, they’re not going to be okay,” said Lisa Watts, co-owner of Hub Town Brewing. 

The couple brewed up the idea when considering their merchandising plans for the holiday season.

Rather than simply putting merchandise on sale, they decided that margin could go to a good cause and pledged 10 per cent of their merch sales to the Food Bank.

“We chose not to do a Black Friday, because when they have the option, our community wants to give back,” said Watts, adding the campaign ran from Nov. 25 to Dec. 25. “So we said, ‘OK, we’re going to take that 10 per cent and donate it on your behalf, so everything you buy from us between now and Christmas, part of that is going to the food bank."

It wasn’t simply new merch going either.

When Watts replaced the old etched glasses with newer printed ones, she had surplus wares on hand.

“We used to engrave all our glasses, but they get stolen, they get broken, and I have to go back and engrave more,” Watts said. “So we took all of those out of service and I had boxes and boxes of them.”

Unable to sell the glasses as new merchandise, she chose to liquidate them, giving 100 per cent of the proceeds to the fund.

That contributed $1,670 to the Jan. 6 donation.

Watts’ partner in crime Mark was emphatic the campaign wouldn’t be the success it was without the community backing them.

“They’ve been super supportive, there’s no way we would have gotten this far without the support in town we’ve got,” Mark said.

The donation was an unexpected boon for the OFB, said executive director Pamela McLean, but she is grateful for the continued support from the Hub Town proprietors.

“They have been extremely supportive. They are just remarkable individuals,” McLean said. “The town is incredibly lucky to have people like this, who are not only incredible business owners, but have this awesome sense of civic duty — they’re always paying back to the community.”

The money gives a much-needed cushion to the food bank’s reserves at a time of year when funding has a tendency to dry up.

“It is truly a feast and famine cycle. It (funding) starts in October, and then it ramps right up until Christmas, where the donations are amazing,” McLean said. “And that sets us up for the first quarter of the year, and then it starts to get lower.”

The holiday donation is just one of the ways the brewers have given back in their short two-and-a-half-year history. 

After successfully crowdfunding their brewery’s startup selling their original 1882 Okotoks Golden Ale at special events, the Watts paid that forward by donating a portion of the sales from their flagship beer to various charities, raising $7,544.17 to date.

“You buy a beer, you hang out with friends, and you accidentally donate,” Watts said.

They kept that momentum going with quick thinking and generosity going into the pandemic in spring of 2020, after only being open for six months.

The brewery adapted quickly to delivering growlers and crowlers, but also selling personalized isolation mugs for $25 each, giving half the proceeds to the food bank. 

Initially expecting to sell only a handful, they sold 800 personalized mugs, donating $10,000 in May of 2020.

Ultimately, Watts credits her customers for the success of campaigns such as the Christmas sale.

“When you know that about your community, that they would rather donate than get 10 per cent off their shirt, you run in this direction, because it works for so many more people,” she said.

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