Mount Gambier’s Confession cafe’s generous act as Sorrentos closes

Following the closure of one of Mount Gambier’s staple cafes, the owner of a fellow business put a call out to the community to help raise money for 18 workers suddenly left jobless in a cost-of-living crisis.

Following the closure of one of Mount Gambier’s staple cafes, the owner of a fellow business put a call out to the community to help raise money for 18 workers suddenly left jobless in a cost-of-living crisis.

After a week of collecting donations, Samuel Johnston, owner and operator of Confession - a popular coffee shop located on Mount Gambier’s main street - said about $6000 had been raised and would now be distributed among the 18 workers from Sorrentos Cafe who lost their jobs earlier this month when the business was put into liquidation.

“About two weeks ago we found out that (Sorrentos) was going to no longer be open,” Sam said.

“We then heard that the staff had been informed that they weren’t going to be receiving pay for their final week or maybe even two weeks of work.

Confession at Mount Gambier. Picture: Samuel Johnston.

“After that, we began getting an influx of customers talking about the situation and saying that they wished there was something they could do to help.

“It was very clear there was a strong desire from locals to do something to help the 18 staff that found themselves unemployed suddenly at this stage of the year.

“So we were inspired from that to try to supply an avenue for people to lend their support and we didn’t have to do much more than put the word out before people started coming.”

On Saturday, October 19, Sam put a post up on Confession’s Facebook page that said a jar would be on the business’s front counter for the next week where people could make a donation that would go to the Sorrentos crew.

He said he had not set a fundraising target but hoped there would be enoughfor each Sorrentos worker to receive an amount equivalent to their final pay cheque.

The initial post received nearly 900 likes on Facebook and over 87 comments, several of which were other local businesses pledging to match Confessions initial donation of $300.

“The support from the community has just been overwhelming, we’ve had an endless stream of people coming by to donate and even some from out of town who have called up to contribute.

“Sorrentos was very much an institution in Mount Gambier, it was a community staple for a very long time. Its unfortunate closure is a really unsettling symptom of the current hospitality crisis and it’s likely something like this will happen more often here if nothing changes.”

Midway through the week Sam said he was contacted by a local finance business that offered to take the donation pool once it was finalised and help divide and distribute it to the members fairly.

“Because the donation pool got so large so quickly, we realised it was going to be a serious task getting the finances to the people who needed it so having that business come on board is a massive help.”

Sunday, October 27 was the final day of collections and the $6000 has now been turned over to be sorted and distributed among the workers.

One of these workers is Chris Eykelenburg, 42, who tragically lost his 5-year-old son in the fatal three-car crash that occurred outside Nangwarry yesterday afternoon.