Small boxes produced by local restaurant have big charitable impact

Beer for a good cause Local brewery creates charitable initiative

EDMONTON — A local eatery is making it easier for Edmontonians to support worthwhile charities while also enjoying fresh food.

Biera and Blind Enthusiasm have a weekly curated charcuterie box combining fresh food with different local brews to help support charities in need across the city.

Greg Zeschuk, owner of Biera and Blind Enthusiasm, told CTV News Edmonton that the pandemic forced the restaurant and brewery to find new ways of reaching customers.

The restaurant has an in-house cheese bar and is known for its different baked breads and locally produced condiments.

Zeschuk said the team decided to find the best elements of all those experiences and package them into a box that people could enjoy at home or outside.

“We realized we had really nice special skills we could apply,” he said. “So we started putting these Biera boxes together and they’ve really grown in the past year.

“We just put all this together… all this cool stuff and started selling it to people.”

Each of the weekly boxes is themed and has customizable elements. Boxes typically contain beer brewed by Blind Enthusiasm, cheese, bread, desserts, condiments, and dips.

“One of the challenges with the pandemic is we all don’t have things to look forward to,” Zeschuk added. “Even if it is a small little thing, like creating a little fun event for you, your family, or your significant other is what we wanted to do.

“It’s always something different.”

Base boxes are $65 and can be picked up from Biera or delivered for a fee. $20 of each box sold is donated to a local charity.

Each week Biera selects a different charity for the boxes to support.

Zeschuk told CTV News Edmonton that 24 charities have been supported so far with 40 to 80 boxes being sold a week.

“We thought we would provide an avenue for these charities,” he said. “(With) not just the monetary amount but the awareness aspect.

“We are really trying to make people aware of what is being done by these awesome groups in the city to help people locally.”