The Moneris Merchant Scoop: FeasTO

Get the scoop on FeasTO, with co-owners Ada Mok and Cameron Pounder.

• Where: Toronto, Greater Toronto Area
• What: Food Truck
• Product: Moneris Go
• Time with Moneris: Since 2016 

Tell me about FeasTO

Around 2012, we started selling our dumplings through pop-up shops in flea/farmers markets, and food events. We did that for a few years, then I think it was in 2014 when we spontaneously applied for the Food Network show Food Truck Face Off – which we won! We realized this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and needed to see what could come of it. So, in 2015, we quit our full-time jobs, committed to getting a food truck, and hit the road.

Why Dumplings?

Ada: Making dumplings was a big part of my upbringing. I’m from Hong Kong, my background is Chinese, and I learned how to make dumplings at home. When I met Cam in university, I started making dumplings for him and some of our roommates. It was easy to make and popular around our dinner table.

Cam: Ada and I both attended the University of Waterloo. I was studying business, learning about data, sales, and analytics. Ada was taking Psychology, then got into healthcare, learning about grant writing and business proposals. We’re definitely a unique duo for a food truck partnership but leveraging what we’re both good at really helped us grow the business.

What has the transition been like for your business from pop-up shop to a food truck?

Everything has been a learning experience, especially the first two years of our business. It was a lot of trial and error. We took so much away from every experience and, in the process, learned there are a lot of external factors that can affect a food truck. We’re always keeping track of things like if an event we did was good or bad, what the weather conditions were that day, traffic, our commute, road closures, other events that were taking place, etc.

But expanding the business into a food truck also led us to start other exciting ventures, like our frozen store where we sell our dumplings at a few local Toronto shops. We also do our own delivery (which was a COVID development). And in the summer, we’ll do a lot of catering. We currently have full-time staff that work for us year-round, then we bring on people part-time from April to October or November.

Why Moneris?
In the first year or two of our business, the world seemed pretty cash-driven, but as time went on there was a preference to paying with card (especially card and cellphone tapping which became increasingly popular at food events). With this in mind, we needed a reliable POS. We looked at a lot of different options, but ultimately decided to work with Moneris in 2016.

Moneris has been our preferred payment solution ever since because they’ve taken the time to understand our business and accommodate to our needs. We’re a seasonal business, and Moneris allows us to pause our merchant accounts during the winter months so we’re not being charged – which is something other payment processors wouldn’t allow us to do. Moneris’ customer service support is also quick to respond and incredibly helpful whenever we need them.

What Moneris products are you currently using?

Ada: We are currently using the Moneris Go terminal, and we’ve really liked it so far. It’s sleek, the functionality works great, and the reporting has really improved. I love that I can sign into the terminal through different accounts, so I can leave the truck with my staff to checkout customers on their own, while ensuring our sensitive information is safely locked away.

Cam: The Moneris Portal is also a great feature to have because we can conduct year-over-year tracking and analysis. And as a long-time Moneris customer, we have a lot of data to look at. It’s a handy tool when deciding what events we’ll be participating in for the year because we can compare our sales and performance, and overall we can see how our business is growing.

Overall Thoughts?

Really happy with Moneris, and from a business perspective we’re just happy to keep doing what we do - grow our clientele, build our catering portfolio and hopefully expand our frozen line.

Don’t miss the chance to catch FeasTO before the summer ends! You can kind find their schedule here.