What a terribly challenging time this must be for your business and employees right now, with doors closed to the public and customers only being able to order takeaway. For some of you this is a new way of doing business and we want to try and help by sharing what other cafes have been doing to survive these unprecedented times.
One meal a day keeps th dr away – Reduce your menu to offer one meal a day for a family of 2 or 4. That way you can reduce your ingredients and waste and use your kitchen to still pump out food for the community. Ask them to pick up at a certain time in the day and remember to keep to the recommended 1.5m distance.
Pay it forward – Try joining the YWasteapp who have a pay it forward scheme that allows customers to buy a meal from a cafe at cost to pass onto a person in need. This is a great way for your loyal customers to help Australian’s doing it tough right now as well as support your business. YWaste partner with Foodbank Australia and Unicef to ensure that food is going to local charities and to people in need.
Staples and dry goods – If you are open for coffees why not put out a few other bits and bobs to sell e.g ground coffee, pasta, tins of tomatoes… even loo roll? That way people don’t have visit the large supermarket chains but can support local instead.
Cook from home – Can you open your kitchen but not your cafe? Or are you a chef stuck at home? Why not use the ‘Cook at Home’ features on YWasteapp, which allows you to sell food to customers plus delivery for an additional cost. Download the app today and give it a go!
Get the word out there – Remember to keep communicating how you are changing your business in these challenging times and ask your community for their support. Use Facebook and Instagram to get the word out there and tag Responsible Cafes in so we can also share the love.
A note on reusables at this time…
While reusables are the best option for takeaway, we understand that many businesses are going to want an easier disposable option for now. Please note, from the research we have done we can only find the below guidelines from the Victorian Government:
There is currently no evidence to suggest there is any benefit in switching to disposables. It is important that the measures we take to minimise transmission are effective. The most effective measures you can take are practising good hand hygiene and cleaning, with particular focus on shared frequently touched surfaces.
See a video below on ways you can adapt to pouring a coffee without using a disposable cup! If your cafe has adapted to use more packaging check out a blog on how to choose sustainable packaging here.
Please feel free to contact us if we can help in anyway and get in touch if you have any other bright ideas we can share. Or else keep checking our social medias channels for any updates.
Team RCx