Help us fight for Milk and Wine Co.!

For those of you who do not know us, we are Beth and Sam the owners of Milk and Wine Co. This open letter to the community, is to, with incredibly heavy hearts, ask for help. This is not about asking for help to build a new structure, or redo the bathrooms, this is to ask for help to survive. To keep our doors open. 

We never wanted to be in this position, but unfortunately, we find ourselves here asking for your financial assistance. We understand that times are hard for everyone, but this place has become more than just a business it’s become a huge part of this community and huge part of our lives. When we opened Milk and Wine, we never thought the people who came into it would become so important to us, and that’s not just our beautiful staff, its our incredible customers, we truly feel blessed by how full you have made our hearts. 

We opened our cafe on day 1 of Melbourne’s first lockdown back in March 2020. We were considered a new business under government conditions, which meant we were unable to take advantage of all the assistance programs that were put in place. 

We realise that this call for help, could come as a huge surprise to you because well, we are always busy! Just to clarify, our business today, is doing well despite the same financial pressures that you are all experiencing, this call to action is purely attached to historical debt that accumulated throughout the 24 months of COVID lockdowns, which allowed us to keep our staff employed, keep our doors open and maintain this safe space for the community. 

Our families have exhausted all other avenues of financial assistance, we have spent countless hours away from our kids to save on cost and sleepless nights trying to work out how we can keep our dreams alive and now we are here, asking for your help. 

Despite all of the above we are still giving out our Pay it Forward meals and coffees, discounts to our incredible essential services and supporting our community with prizes for fundraisers because these parts of our business are who we are and who we want to continue to be. We would rather close the business than be in a position where we had to stop doing these things. 

We are hoping to raise $100K to remove as much of this debt as possible and give ourselves the best chance of survival. Please understand this is the hardest thing we have had to do. We have delayed this plea as long as we can perhaps at this point, even too long. But if this business means as much to you as it does to us, then please help us fight. Even if all you can afford is $5, every little bit will unbelievably appreciated.