THUNDER BAY — The more things change, the more they stay the same — only a little bigger when it comes to Novemburger.
The United Way’s tasty, month-long fundraising campaign, spread across 16 Thunder Bay eateries, raised more than $23,000 in 2022, with more than 11,500 burgers sold last month, each contributing $2 toward the charity.
Once again, Prospector Burger Barn sold the most burgers in the competition, dishing out 3,189 to hungry customers last month, while Beekcake’s Burger Factor for the third year in a row was named creator of the best burger.
Chef Derek Lankinen, owner and founder of Beekcake’s Burger Factory, on Friday said it’s great to win, but even better to know he’s giving back.
“It’s pretty amazing, it’s the third time now,” Lankinen said of the victory. “It’s pretty exciting to be rewarded for your creativity. That doesn’t always happen in our industry. Usually, your reward is a fistful of twenties, which is nice, but I like hardware and the award’s pretty nice.
“A huge part of Beekcake’s is trying to give back to the community of Thunder Bay. We’re completely Thunder Bay built and Novemburger is always a great way to punch that point home a little more, so we really like to make sure we sell as many as humanly possible so we can make a big fat cheque to them.”
The money collected from the annual program will be used to help support food security in Thunder Bay.
Albert Brulé, United Way of Thunder Bay’s CEO, said it’s a fun way for the community to help raise much needed funds.
Still, each year he’s a little surprised at just how many burgers are sold and consumed, joking that this year, if all the burgers sold were stacked on top of each other they’d be taller than Toronto’s CN Tower.
That’s a lot of burgers, he said.
“It’s spectacular,” Brulé said of the support. “Our participating restaurants have stressed they love being part of Novemburger. It’s great for the community and it’s great for business. Novemburger supports local eateries, but more importantly raises much needed funds to help the programs, services and initiatives that the United Ways and its donors support.”
Brulé said because of the success of the past four years, they plan to be back again in 2023.
