When Shant Halajian hit 50,000 YouTube subscribers, he fed local firefighters. When he hit 100,000, he set his sights on something bigger: feeding 1,000 kids across southern California at four Boys & Girls Club locations in a single day, from Burbank to Pasadena.
That’s the kind of person DreamHost gets to call a colleague.
Shant is DreamHost’s Executive Chef and the creator behind Mr. Flavor, a food and lifestyle brand he built from the ground up. He immigrated from Aleppo, Syria as a child, started his culinary career washing dishes, trained at The French Laundry, and competed on Season 23 of Hell’s Kitchen. The YouTube channel and the food truck came after, built the same way everything else in his life has been. For Halajian, milestones are meant for giving back to the communities around him.
“Feeding 1,000 kids wasn’t about celebrating success,” he said. “It was about sharing it.”
He chose 1,000 because it felt almost impossible, a goal that would require planning, partnerships, volunteers, and a community coming together. He pulled it off. And he’s already thinking bigger. The next goal is 5,000. The ultimate one is 100,000.
The event had been in the works for months, but the timing landed during a difficult stretch for the LA area. With communities still feeling the weight of recent fires, showing up with free, fresh food for kids felt less like an event and more like the right thing to do. Halajian didn’t want anything going to waste, and the Boys & Girls Club locations he chose are organizations that show up for kids every day. This was a chance to add to that.
Arpineh Khodagholian, Director of Programs at the Boys & Girls Club of Burbank and Greater East Valley, said the partnership came together naturally. Halajian reached out because he felt the club’s mission aligned with his own: “using food as a vehicle to make a positive impact.” After hearing his story, they were in.
On June 23, the Mr. Flavor truck — Powered by DreamHost — pulled up to the Boys & Girls Club on Angeleno Avenue in Burbank at 7 a.m. After three hours of careful prep, he was ready to serve the first plate. When the line started moving, it moved fast, with kids filling the courtyard, plates of fresh chicken fajitas, rice, and beans landing on tables under string lights and shade canopies.
At DreamHost, we build AI tools like Remixer to help people put their ideas into the world, and sometimes that means showing up with a food truck and a logo on the side. When Halajian brought this idea forward, showing up wasn’t a question. “It’s one thing for a company to write a check and sponsor an event like this,” Halajian said. “It’s another to show up, volunteer, meet the kids, and become part of the experience.”
Joining Halajian out front was King Moore, a 10-year-old rapper and entertainer with over 2 million followers across YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. He spent the afternoon handing out plates alongside Halajian. Two creators at very different points in their careers, both spending a Tuesday the same way.
Some of the younger kids referred to Halajian as “the cook” because they didn’t know his name yet. When it came up that he’d been on TV, that got their attention. Gordon Ramsay’s name sealed it. A few of them watched Hell’s Kitchen at home with their parents and knew exactly who that was. Mostly though, they were just kids on a hot summer day, being completely honest about what they thought. One made it very clear he felt shortchanged on peppers. Nobody minded the heat the way the adults did. They ate with their friends, had fun, and went about their day the way kids should.
For Khodagholian, that was exactly the point. “For many of our members, it was more than just receiving a free meal, it was an opportunity to feel valued and part of something special. Seeing someone from the community invest their time and resources into our members sends a powerful message that they matter.”
The truck kept moving. Stevenson Boys & Girls Club in Burbank. Then Pacoima. Then Pasadena. Each stop was in a different neighborhood, a different group of kids. ABC7 Los Angeles made the drive out after seeing our pitch earlier in the week. By the time the last stop wrapped, Halajian and his team had served over 1,100 kids across four cities, more than he’d set out to feed.
Tune in to the segment below starting at 20:14.
Halajian hopes the kids remember less about what was on the plate and more about how they felt that day. “I hope they remember that they were welcomed, celebrated, and important. If even one child walks away believing that kindness still exists and that people they have never met showed up just for them, then today was a success.”
Kindness has no ZIP code. For Halajian, that’s not a tagline. It’s the next 100,000 kids.