Staff Meals

March 23, 2020–  

Everybody is scared. Many industries are facing hardships with some grinding to a halt. Business owners don’t know if they will have a business to come back to after this is all said and done. Some people are panicking. Others are taking this opportunity to reach out and help each other. Out of this, Staff Meals was born.

Collective Hospitality is the management team who runs The Mackenzie Room and Say Mercy! and this crisis brought out their creativity. They started a line of 500ml ready-to-eat dishes to warm up at home, all under $10 each. The idea being that it was a cost-effective option for people who want to eat good food. They made some rapid changes to the Say Mercy! website to allow it to take orders and process payments. And as an added bonus, $2 is added to every order and is donated directly to the food bank.

Staff Meals goes a step further

A large percentage of the front-of-house serving staff within the industry is now out of work. In fact, many customer-facing retail staff are in the same boat. So along with meals you can buy for yourself, Say Mercy! also sells Suspended Stew. This is a $5 meal you purchase, but don’t eat… it’s for someone in need. It’s a way of ensuring someone else also gets to enjoy a tasty meal tonight, when they might not have otherwise.

Looks like success

After one week of operating the Staff Meal initiative, they have already raised $450 for the food bank and have had 440 Suspended Stews purchased.

If that wasn’t enough, word has spread of the good work Collective Hospitality is doing. Other restaurants are joining force and opting in to also offer Staff Meals with the same setup; $2 donation to the food bank with every order and the option of buying a Suspended Stew for someone in need.