Toronto entrepreneurs are starting a pay-it-forward initiative to give back to those who can't afford a restaurant meal for the holidays.

Through word of mouth, Susanna Chung and her husband, Adam Chung, have amassed more than 125 meals in six days, thanks to their donations, donations from the community and restaurants matching their meal purchases.

With the current momentum, Chung anticipates hitting 200 meals.

Susanna Chung is the owner of bridal alteration shop Mrs. P Stitches,  renovation company BookAdam and marketing agency TYP Marketing.

Both her and her husband have partnered with four Toronto restaurants — Aviv Immigrant Kitchen, Chen Chen's Nashville Hot Chicken, Kiss My Pans and Pi Co near Christie and St Clair —in providing hot meals for the later half of December.

She doesn't plan on stopping there. Right now Chung is calling for local restaurants to partner up and for the public to donate what they can as part of the initiative.

"It's so cold out there right now," Chung says. "I feel for everyone that is food-poor and rent-poor. I know it's so tough. So if there's anything that we can do to help, we're going to do it."

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The current plan is to have the partnered-up restaurants put up a sign containing receipts of the pre-purchased meals. People who are in need can then pluck up a receipt to reserve a meal. One meal will be given per person.

Chung says she was inspired by this initiative after her financial hardships during the early days of lockdowns in 2020. At the time, both her and Adam were laid off as servers in the hospitality industry, right before they put in an offer to purchase a home.

"We were at rock bottom," she says. "It was a really difficult time."

Thanks to the Bartenders Benevolent Fund, Chung and her husband were able recover financially. Now they feel they're in a comfortable place to give back to the community, for not only this holiday season, but after as well.

"It's nice to say 'Hey, it's Christmas and people are in need of food,'" Chung Says. "But the reality is people are in need of food all year long."