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<\/a>McNeil is proud of his Camosun history, and credits the college\u2019s community for inspiring him to build a lifelong legacy in Victoria.<\/p>\n
\u201cI came down here when I was 19 to go to college, and I haven\u2019t left, and Camosun made such an impression on me that I ended up staying and putting roots down, and building businesses,\u201d he says. \u201cWhat better props to a college, that people who go there actually stay and build the community around them, right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Big Wheel Burger has three locations around town and a commitment to sustainable practices.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re the first carbon-neutral restaurant in Canada,\u201d says McNeil. \u201cWhen we do anything, we make sure that it\u2019s done in environmental, sustainable ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeil built his business on active community involvement and sustainable environmental practices, which include using fresh, local ingredients.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe grind our beef fresh every day; it\u2019s made from hormone-free, antibiotic-free meat,\u201d says McNeil. \u201cWe source as much locally as we can, and we make all of our own sauces and things like this that go into our burger, so it\u2019s kind of fast food without the guilt trip.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeil laughs as he recalls the history of the restaurant’s name. Nearly 20 years ago, he was playing soccer with some friends and he tripped while sprinting down the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took a little bit of a tumble, and my last name is McNeil, and I was kinda spinning like a wheel, and somebody said \u2018Big wheels keep on turning\u2019\u2014from the song \u2018Proud Mary\u2019\u2014and they just called me Big Wheel McNeil after that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
McNeil takes pride in the fact that his restaurants cater to a wide range of customers with different needs, serving vegetarian and vegan burgers, and following strict celiac-friendly protocols in the kitchen. He says that one thing most people don\u2019t know is that all of the disposable packaging that comes with their meals is fully compostable. As well, when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, McNeil instated a 12-percent auto-gratuity to keep his business afloat, but also donated a portion of the order total to the Big Wheel Burger Community Foundation, which helped donate food to frontline workers and the homeless population. McNeil later changed the gratuity to a compulsory 1.5-percent charity tax on every order, which his company matches\u2014the proceeds go to local charity foundations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people choose to buy from Big Wheel Burger, they choose to support the community,\u201d says McNeil. \u201cI want to be transparent, because the spirit of it for me is that we\u2019re all doing this together, so I\u2019m not asking anybody to do anything I wouldn\u2019t do, and I want people to be proud of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNeil feels that his customers have been supportive of the initiative and his involvement in the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people are comfortable that we\u2019re matching it, and we\u2019re pretty transparent with where the money goes, so I think it\u2019s been real positive,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople who understand who we are as a business know that this is what we\u2019re about, so we\u2019ve always been built for a triple-bottom-line philosophy, so making sure we\u2019re taking care of our staff, and our community, and the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Big Wheel Burger founder Calen McNeil, who graduated from Camosun College’s Pacific Rim Studies program in 1992, says that the college was pivotal in creating the success he shares with the community today. He says that it gave him the business fundamentals he needed and it taught him about community. \u201cCamosun is always very open […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21679","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21679"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21714,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21679\/revisions\/21714"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}