Every dollar counts: Lebanon’s food businesses turn pink for October

People gather around tables covered with baskets of fried chicken, golden tenders and loaded fries at Wingmen restaurant.

Pink raspberry sauce travels from one table to another, matching the restaurant’s pink campaign materials. Each table carries a flyer reading “Every 1$ Counts,” with a QR code to scan the menu. When the bill arrives, a pink donation box joins it, inviting customers to contribute. On a large board inside the restaurant, the daily donations add up, with the final total expected on Oct. 31.

This is Pink October in Lebanon, where restaurants and dessert businesses are bringing breast cancer awareness into their menus, from pink burger buns to glazed donuts and cookies.

The products vary, as do the ways businesses support the cause. Some collect donations directly, others match customers’ contributions, while some offer discounted products to help schools and organizations raise money themselves.

For Leonie Nassar, communication manager at the Barbara Nassar Cancer Association, these initiatives create two opportunities: supporting patients who already need care and reaching people who may not yet understand the importance of early detection.

“At the same time, it’s not about the products they’re selling and the proceeds they’re giving us,” she tells The Beiruter. “There’s always awareness out of the campaigns they’re doing as well.”

One pink bun, one dollar

At B-Stack, founder Jad Bachaalany has turned the idea into a simple transaction. Customers can choose a pink burger bun for an additional 50 cents, which the restaurant matches, bringing the donation to $1 for every pink bun ordered.

Bachaalany had considered launching a campaign like this before opening the business. Having his own restaurant gave him the opportunity to put the idea into practice, with breast cancer awareness carrying personal significance for him.

“I want people to feel that they’re contributing as well,” he told The Beiruter. “We’re doing this together.”

Bachaalany intends to share the final amount publicly, with the money going to the Barbara Nassar Cancer Association.

Wingmen has taken a different route. Rather than attaching a fixed donation to each special item, the restaurant uses its limited-edition pink raspberry dip to draw attention to the campaign, then invites customers to donate whatever they can when paying their bill. The daily total displayed inside the restaurant makes the collection visible, with the full amount destined for the association.

The restaurant’s management says the idea grew out of previous charity collaborations. “Every year we choose one association,” the owner explains, recalling an earlier Christmas initiative that ran for a single day. “The last event, it was very good, but we saw that we can do better, it was only one day.”

The team decided to extend its next campaign across October, choosing breast cancer awareness as its focus. “The quote is, even $1 counts,” he says. “Because if everyone puts a dollar in their income, it won’t affect this much. They accumulate at the end of the month.”

The restaurant tracks its donations on a public board and plans to give the full amount to the association at the end of the campaign.

From dessert counters to bake sales

The fundraising takes another form at X&Doughs and Better From Scratch, where founder Nahlan Saade prepares pink-themed desserts, including donuts and cookies, for schools, universities and organizations holding their own awareness events.

Rather than donating a percentage of every sale directly to an association this October, Saade offers a different initiative.

“We’re just offering our products at a very discounted price, covering our costs in order for the schools to be able to make a profit to do this donation,” Saade explains. Organizers contact the businesses, place their orders and sell the desserts at bake sales, keeping the proceeds for their chosen cause.

The arrangement has attracted a particularly strong response this year. “I think that this year we saw the most orders and the most excitement to be able to be a part of this initiative than any other year before,” he told The Beiruter.

Saade views the products as a means of keeping the conversation going, as they can remind younger people at schools and universities of the campaign and make them research breast cancer. For instance, seeing pink desserts in a school cafeteria or at the university bake sale can trigger such people. She hopes to carry the same discounted-product model into other charitable initiatives throughout the year.

The three businesses approach fundraising differently, although each gives customers a tangible way to participate.

Beyond the menu

At the receiving end of these initiatives, the Barbara Nassar Cancer Association works with patients throughout the year. Established by Barbara Nassar before she died in 2014, following her fight with breast cancer, the association helps adults living with cancer access donated medication and complementary services.

Nassar describes the association’s approach as a combination of medical and psychosocial support.

“This is all a medical side. But we focus a lot on psychosocial support. For us, the medicine is half of the treatment, and the other half of the treatment is psychological comfort and love. Love is always the first treatment for the disease,” she says.

The association conducts 18 support groups for different forms of cancer, as well as provides Physiotherapy, psychological counseling, beauty treatments and nutrition advice to patients going through cancer therapy. The organization also facilitates screening and awareness programs all year round.

“Cancer patients are sick during the whole year,” she says. “Awareness has to be there.”

The October partnerships help sustain this work while bringing the cause into places people already visit. Wingmen and B-Stack direct their fundraising to the association, while businesses organizing other initiatives can choose their own arrangements. Nassar says the association welcomes collaborations from restaurants, wellness businesses, schools and other groups looking to contribute.

More than a shade of pink

The movement extends beyond these three businesses. Nassar describes initiatives ranging from pink smoothies and restaurant specials to yoga sessions that dedicate part of their proceeds to the association. Beauty businesses can also contribute through products or other fundraising activities. Each initiative brings a different audience into the conversation, whether through a meal, a workout or a purchase.

October offers a familiar reminder, but Nassar hopes the attention will carry into the other months as well. Breast cancer can affect young women, too, and screening should not be reserved for one month of the year. The association continues to promote early detection and support patients long after the pink decorations come down.

For the businesses taking part, the challenge is to keep the cause visible while making the financial contribution clear. For customers, it might mean choosing a pink bun, leaving a donation beside the bill or buying a dessert at a school fundraiser.

As Nassar puts it, “We need to be aware of this issue all year long. We need to do early detection all year long. We need all these initiatives during the whole year, not just in October for the sake of the color.”