Karoonda East Murray Council funding free meals for residents to support local businesses amid coronavirus shutdown
A regional council is offering locals the chance to tuck into a free meal as a way to help its businesses through the COVID-19 crisis.
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When the Karoonda East Murray Council was exploring the best ways to support its local businesses through the COVID-19 crisis, it came up with a unique way of doing it – free meals for the local community.
The council has made major investments in recent years, including the Karoonda silo art project, to drive visitation to the town as a way to ensure businesses can continue and thrive.
Now, with coronavirus keeping people at home, the council has turned to a new SA-based food delivery app to try to stimulate spending in the town.
The YourLocal app doesn’t charge food venues fees – so 100 per cent of the order proceeds go directly back to the business.
Council is also funding free meals to allow residents to order takeaway food – while also helping to save two local businesses hardest hit by COVID-19 restrictions – the Karoonda Hotel and Karoonda Mini-Mart.
Locals who download the app will have access to free meals from the two businesses.
Council will redirect funding from other programs that are unlikely to go ahead this financial year due to COVID-19 to cover the estimated $15,000 for the initiative.
Karoonda East Murray Mayor Caroline Phillips, pictured with Karoonda Mini-Mart manager Sanjay Chandapuram, said the program was a way council could support both the businesses and residents who were struggling during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our aim is for this program to have a triple bottom line effect, delivering direct cashflow to these businesses and help them maintain their workforces, introducing new technology into the community while also providing meals for locals who could also be feeling the impacts of COVID-19,” she said.
YourLocal co-founder Rye Smith said while the app was only launched three weeks ago, it already had 60 business on board from across Australia and close to 20,000 downloads.