This may be a sign of things to come to keep your small business alive.
Volunteers have sprung up to help deliver take-out food to show their support and appreciation for small mom-or-pop, or family run restaurants in Long Branch, Lakeshore Village and Mimico.
An online Volunteer Driver Take-out Delivery initiative began on April 10 and runs until April 25 in which volunteer drivers, for a non-perishable food item donation, will deliver your meal from a number of your favourite eateries to your home utilizing ‘100% contactless delivery.’
The food is placed in a sealed package in the driver’s trunk by a restaurant worker and retrieved by the person who placed the order on arrival. The person can leave a food donation in a bin in the trunk that will be dropped off at a local food bank.
“Our volunteers remotely open their trunk for restaurants to load deliveries and remotely open their trunk for customers to retrieve their deliveries,” according to their irover.com website.
They say payments are processed over the phone by restaurants and the volunteers are not in contact with anyone.
“This initiative is all about neighbours trying to help give our local restaurants a fighting chance during these unprecedented times,” according to the Volunteer Driver Take-out Delivery website. “Many restaurants are already closed, and some are doubtful they will ever be able to open again.”
The small restaurants say major food delivery services have apps that can charge up to 30% on orders which leaves them with a slim margin of profit.
The restauranteurs, and customers, say the service is great and would like to see longer hours.
The service operates from 5 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. daily. The restaurants are open for meal-pickups outside these hours.
The program will look at expanding delivery service to more restaurants following an assessment after a two week trial.
The volunteer take-out service now includes food ordered from restaurants including; Kitchen Off Sixth, Dakota’s Sports Bar and Grill, Pulcinella Ristorante & Wine Bar and Mooring Eats