Nourish those who have lost work due to COVID-19

Will you help me nourish those who've lost work due to Covid-19?

***IMPORTANT: This is our fundraising page. If you would like to register for a free meal, please go to our website .***

COVID-19 has had a devastating effect on the hospitality industry, and many service and retail businesses have been terribly affected too. What this means in real human impact is that thousands of people in Sydney alone have lost their jobs literally overnight. These are low income workers with little to fall back on. They can’t pay their rent, they can’t buy groceries, and they can’t get jobs. Their industry just disappeared. These are also the people who have been working tirelessly to provide you with the dining-out experiences you love. They’ve also been cutting your hair, doing your nails, making your coffee and baking your croissants, and now their livelihoods have simply evaporated overnight, in silence. So, I want to feed them. It so happens that I have an empty restaurant premises in Sydney right now, and I want to open her doors again, this time to offer a free meal to anyone, from any industry (both employees and business owners), who needs it as a result of job or revenue loss due to COVID-19. And I need your help. I am asking for monetary donations to purchase food and supplies to fund a (delicious) soup kitchen operating from the Hearth & Soul Sydney premises.

If you can help I would be so incredibly grateful. When I was caught up in the NYE fires, I desperately wanted to do something to help the communities that were devastated. But the reality was that I was there on holiday, I wasn’t part of the local community, and I could (and had to) leave. Of course I donated to all the relevant charities, and we offered our assistance to every one of the locals we met in the evacuation centre. But there was very little practical help we could actually offer. This time it’s different. These are my people whose lives are being turned upside down. Several of the beautiful ladies who worked at Hearth are now facing incredibly uncertain futures. We’ve opened our home to those that we can (and yes, it’s that bad, you try saving enough to fund an unknowable number of months rent on the average hospitality wage). And now I want to open my restaurant too.

Anything you can contribute will make a huge difference to these beautiful people who have nothing to fall back on. Please share this post with anyone in your network who may be able to assist, and in any and all relevant COVID support/community forums. Our meal services are listed on our website, recipients will need to register for a meal  before they come and collect it - I want to make sure that we have enough stock for each service, I would hate for anyone to be disappointed and this is the best way I can think of to manage it. 
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Obviously we will comply with any government and council food-service requirements for COVID. Our service is currently takeaway only.
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If for some reason announcements are made in coming days or weeks that would mean a soup kitchen is not viable, any funds and supplies collected will be donated to a charity that is assisting people who are affected by COVID.