QUINTON JACOBS grew up in subsidized housing in Scarborough, raised by a single mom, and was suspended and nearly expelled as a teenager. Today, he works full time in the nuclear industry while running two community initiatives that cook thousands of meals a year and have taken him running across South Africa with a community of strangers who became family.

Quinton Jacobs is the founder of Ubuntu, a Toronto not-for-profit that cooks and delivers hundreds of meals a month to organizations across the city, runs a major holiday initiative with over 200 volunteers, and recently launched Pathways, a youth mentorship program that has taken him into schools and a youth detention center in Ajax. He is also the founder of Escape, a global running community whose relay races have taken friends from Toronto to New York, Chicago, Boston, Paris, and across South Africa, a journey now told in Escape the Documentary, currently touring film festivals. By day, he works in the nuclear fuel industry, a career that started almost by accident.

He explains:
◼ How Ubuntu started with him and one friend committing to cook 300 meals in his home kitchen, and clogging his sink for two weeks in the process
◼ Why he believes writing a check isn't enough, and how bringing volunteers into the kitchen and on deliveries changes the way they see their own city
◼ What it was like becoming a single dad to three kids during his divorce, and how he worked through the guilt that came with it
◼ How a group of running friends turned "let's run from Toronto to New York" into international relay races across three continents
◼ Why running across South Africa and finishing with a 5K alongside kids in a township became one of the highlights of the entire project
◼ What Ubuntu actually means, and how the philosophy behind it is reshaping how his volunteers see their role in the community



📍 FOLLOW JORDANA:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanagoldlist/
Website: https://www.jhgcriminallaw.com/

📍 FOLLOW QUINTON:
Website: https://ubuntu.family/