New Donation Creation
- engrained
- Mar 27, 2021
- 1 min read
This winter we’ve partnered with Girls on the Run to create our newest donation creation flatbread. The Girls on the Run organization inspires girls to live with confidence and purpose. The organization website points out that by adolescence girl’s confidence drops nearly twice as much as boys. Coronavirus related stressors, like increased social isolation and limited physical activity, leave girls with less outlets than ever before. The trained coaches of the Girls on the Run organization instill confidence in girls by promoting good physical and mental decision-making skills through experience-based curriculum and physical exercise.
In these challenging, socially distanced times, girls need the skills and training provided by the Girls on the Run organization more than ever.
As a restaurant with a female led management team, we are delighted to partner with an organization that strives to empower the future of our gender.
Our donation creation flatbread this month features Roasted Butternut Squash from Abbey Normal Farm, Apple Barn Apples, Clover Hill Farm Ham, Arugula & Honey Mustard Drizzle. $1 of every flatbread purchased will be donated to The Girls on the Run Organization.
When you purchase our donation creation this month, you will feel great feeding yourself while helping the Girls on the Run organization feed the minds of our future!
To learn more about Girls on the Run, visit: https://www.gotrcentralillinois.org/.
The "donation creation" concept that Engrained has developed — a rotating seasonal menu item with a charitable partner — is one of the most elegant solutions to the challenge of sustained community engagement that I have seen from a local restaurant. Most restaurant charity initiatives are one-off events that generate a burst of goodwill and then disappear; the donation creation model creates a recurring, menu-integrated giving mechanism that keeps the charitable mission visible to customers throughout the season. The fact that this winter's partner is Girls on the Run also gives the initiative a natural narrative arc — customers who learn about the program through the flatbread can follow the organization's work throughout the season and see the impact of…
The public health dimensions of the Girls on the Run program that Engrained is supporting are worth examining carefully, because the organization's model addresses multiple interconnected health outcomes simultaneously. Physical exercise is the most visible component, but the experience-based curriculum that builds confidence and positive decision-making skills has documented effects on mental health outcomes, social development, and long-term health behaviors. The COVID-19 context is particularly relevant from a public health perspective: research consistently shows that adolescent girls experienced disproportionate mental health impacts during the pandemic, and programs that combine physical activity with social connection and skills development are among the most effective interventions available. In my research I use a correlation coefficient calculator for adolescent health outcome data analysis, a density…
The supply chain behind this donation flatbread is a quiet celebration of the Central Illinois local food ecosystem, and it deserves more attention than it typically receives in coverage of the charitable partnership. Abbey Normal Farm, Apple Barn, and Clover Hill Farm are all small local producers whose viability depends on exactly the kind of consistent, high-profile restaurant relationships that Engrained provides. When Engrained features their products on a donation creation flatbread that generates community buzz and media attention, it is not just supporting Girls on the Run — it is also marketing three small farms to a customer base that might not otherwise know they exist. This multiplier effect is one of the most powerful things a farm-to-table restaurant…
The timing of this partnership — winter 2021, during the height of COVID-19's impact on youth mental health and social development — makes it particularly significant. The pandemic's effect on adolescent girls was disproportionate in ways that are still being fully understood: increased social isolation removed the peer relationships that are crucial for confidence development, limited physical activity removed one of the most effective tools for managing anxiety and depression, and school disruptions removed the structured environments where Girls on the Run programs typically operate. Engrained's decision to partner with Girls on the Run at exactly this moment reflects a genuine understanding of what their community needed most. In my program coordination work I use a question generator for youth program…
What makes the Engrained approach to community partnership so effective is the authenticity that comes from genuine alignment between the business's identity and the cause it supports. A female-led management team at a farm-to-table brewery partnering with an organization that builds confidence and purpose in young girls is not a random corporate social responsibility exercise — it is a natural expression of the values that already define the business. That authenticity is something customers can feel, and it transforms a charitable donation from a transaction into a statement of shared values. The flatbread itself also reflects that same commitment to local sourcing and quality that runs through everything Engrained does. In my food and beer writing work I use an…