NewmarketToday is marking this giving season by celebrating Newmarket's Community Angels, the people whose kindness, compassion and community spirit help make our town one of the best to live in the country.
Newmarket’s Cachet Supper Club owner, Jenn McLachlan, offers her customers a hearty serving of kindness along with dinner in an atmosphere that feels like a social club.
The local restaurateur, in fact, has built into her business a giving-back component branded as ‘Cachet kindness’.
You can see that kindness in action during the summer at the former small ice-cream window that is known as the Cachet Community Window, and which is run by her now-retired father, Ted McLachlan.
Everytime a customer orders french fries, onion rings, coffee, or turtle shells (similar to Ottawa’s renowned beaver tails), for example, 20 per cent of all sales go to support Newmarket residents who are making a difference in the community.
“When you order through the window, you’re contributing to local causes. And my dad is going to hand over a cheque every month. It’s a win-win-win,” McLachlan told NewmarketToday last summer.
McLachlan, a longtime Newmarket resident who is also a member of the Main Street District BIA, said people walk into Cachet nearly every day of the week looking for support for various causes and events — and she always finds a way to help.
Recent local causes McLachlan supported included collecting food for the Newmarket Food Pantry, and providing the food for Newmarket’s first hugathon, Hugs4Hope, which set a Guinness World Record for the most hugs by a team of eight in 60 minutes in support of youth here and in Africa.
Cachet’s first charity golf tournament last July also raised money for a Newmarket organization known as Wishing Forward, which grants local children their wish under the broader Children’s Wish Foundation.
In all, about eight events and fundraisers each year receive a cash donation from Cachet’s community window.
Since taking the helm at Cachet in 2017, McLachlan has led the roasting of about 30 turkeys to put on a free Thanksgiving community dinner for those in need, with her staff volunteering their time for the happy event.
