Nando’s gives away free meals at all U.S. restaurants

ing at Elizabeth, Longman & Eagle, and Schwa, Bauer grew up in Seattle where his parents composted for their home gardens. But he didn’t pick it up when he first started growing weed with friends. “We were giving the plants an amended Miracle Grow mix. It would work out after a while, but you would start to see deficiencies.” After several generations, the plants they cloned from the mother plants would lose their vigor and health, and they’d have to start all over again with first cuts from a new plant.

Bauer opened Flour Power in the summer of 2020, but the restaurant closed the following year for a mid-pandemic break and reset. He used his time o to go fishing and teach himself to grow cannabis again. And he developed a preoccupation with healthy, living soil. He saw parallels between his old, unhealthy plants and the diseases and general weakening that a ict humans as they age.

“If you’re clean, you can get a lot more runs,” he says. “I started thinking how the same mechanisms that happen in a plant are the same mechanisms that happen in people. I started going down these rabbit holes on plant nutrition and how it a ects human nutrition.”

His compost operation began casually. He had some spare soil laying around in a 20-quart Rubbermaid bin, to which he added some commercial vermicompost, seeded with earthworms and other organisms that break down organic matter into castings that can contribute nutrients for plants. Occasionally he tossed in leftover worms after fishing, or dead cannabis leaves, and then his own home kitchen scraps. Soon he graduated to another bin, then four, and then the Amazon totes he’d found abandoned in an alley.

“They just left them there for me,” he says.

When the restaurant reopened in March 2022, he went into high gear, experimenting with amendments like spent mushroom blocks from Four Star Mushrooms; rotting forest leaves threaded with fungal mycelium; or horse manure from Janie’s Mill, the purveyors who supply the organic, stone-ground flour he usually uses.

The only time it ever smelled bad was when something went sideways, like when he added too much spent brewers’ grains, whose decomposition produces so much heat it can kill the worms. “That smells like low tide,” he says. When things are going well, it smells neutral.

It was about this time that he read a pivotal book that validated everything he’d been thinking about plant nutrition and its connection to human and environmental health.

What Your Food Ate: How to Heal Our Land and Reclaim Our Health by David R. Montgomery and Anne Biklé is an argument for regenerative farming that makes the case that humans are suffering from an epidemic of nutrient malnutrition brought on by the overtillage and the overuse of commercial fertilizers and pesticides that are endemic to conventional farming practices.

Bauer, like any self-respecting chef, adheres to the simplest but most important principle of cooking—start with the best ingredients. What he’s come to believe is that it starts with good soil. The plants and animals that live on it taste superior to conventionally produced food because they’re healthier. And eating them makes people healthier.

He religiously buys from farms that practice organic, sustainable, or regenerative practices. But that’s expensive, and it’s counterintuitive to let any of it go to waste. If a clump of soil makes its way into the kitchen on the root end of a vegetable, he brushes it into the scrap bin. “That stu is beyond organic,” he says.

At the peak of his compost operations, one of his cooks told him, “You like buying the best stu just so that you can feed it to your compost.”

Bauer jokes, “It’s like, ‘Dude, if I’m paying two dollars a pound extra for that produce, yeah, save that dirt.’”

His bathroom bins are rarely empty. He’s perpetually adding to the compost, moving it around, turning it to distribute material uniformly, aerate it, and release some of the heat it produces. When a quadrant is ready, he scoops it into a bus tub fitted with a screen and sifts the worm poop from all the undigested cardboard and leaves—and worms. The end product is a rich, black, granular material that’s odorless and light enough to shower through your fingers. And if Bauer hooks you up, it’s ready to feed your weed, tomatoes, or flower beds.

“The goal and the purpose behind this is about sequestering carbon,” he says. “It’s keeping carbon in a system where it’s used over and over again until it’s in our bodies. It makes us what we are instead of getting trapped in garbage bags and landfills and in the atmosphere. Whether that carbon comes from a kale stem or a carrot or a cannabis plant, it’s staying in the dirt and it’s become something enjoyable.

“I guess I sound like a pot-smoking hippie, but it’s true.”

On July 18, Nando’s PERi-PERi will honor its South African roots by celebrating Mandela Day, in recognition of the South African leader and anti-apartheid activist Nelson Mandela. To commemorate Mandela’s fight for social justice, Nando’s will give away free meals to customers who donate back-to-school supplies to underserved youth in their area.

The event will run from 4 PM to 7 PM local time at all Nando’s U.S. locations, including those in Chicago and its surrounding suburbs. Any customer who brings in a new back-to-school item will receive a free flame-grilled PERi-PERi chicken leg or breast, prepared at the spice level of their choosing. Following the event, Nando’s will drop off the donations at underserved schools in their community.

“Mandela Day holds a special place in our hearts and we hope that Nando’s fans everywhere will embrace this iconic day of giving,” says Nando’s chief brand officer Sepanta Bagherpour. “So drop off school supplies for our local students in need and enjoy some delicious PERi-PERi flame-grilled chicken in the process.”

Many American families will struggle this summer to afford back-to-school supplies. This Mandela Day, Nando’s will support them by filling backpacks with everything kids need to start the school year off right. In addition, Nando’s employees (aka Nandocas) will donate 67 minutes of volunteer time to clean up and improve local schools in their community in honor of Mandela’s 67-year-long fight for social justice. Nando’s also will provide free meals to teachers at every partner school.

About International Nelson Mandela Day

Born on July 18, 1918, Nelson Mandela dedicated his life to the fight for equality and the end to apartheid. In the process, he changed South Africa and the world. In 2009, the United Nations officially declared Nelson Mandela International Day, aka Mandela Day, to be held on Mandela’s birthday each year to honor his legacy and the power of individuals to transform the world with a global call to action to promote peace, reconcil- iation, and cultural diversity. In recognition of the holiday, the Nelson Mandela Foundation created the Mandela Day Initiative to inspire people to take doable, impactful actions in their community every July 18th.

About Nando’s PERi-PERi

A er making its 1987 debut in Johannesburg, South Africa, Nando’s has spread its flame to legions of fans in 24 countries on five continents who can’t resist the allure of succulent PERi-PERi chicken that’s been marinated for 24 hours, flamegrilled to perfection, and basted to their preferred flavor and spice. The restaurant is equally renowned for its spicy PERi-PERi—the Bird’s Eye Chilli Pepper that indigenous Africans introduced to the Portuguese centuries ago. Nando’s PERiPERi entered the US market in 2008 with the opening of its first location in Washington, D.C., and now operates nearly 50 restaurants in and around Virginia, Maryland, Washington, Chicago, and Texas. For more information, visit www.nandosperiperi.com.

**No purchase necessary. One per guest while supplies last. Offer good for dine-in and takeout only on July 18th from 4-7pm at all US locations. Must exchange a back-to-school item, or make a financial donation, in exchange for the free meal.