SaveOurSydney Life Support for the Sydney Hospitality Industry

Closures and restrictions on restaurants, cafes and bars due to Covid-19 has put huge financial pressures on the hospitality industry meaning an abundance of produce but nowhere for it to go. However, it isn’t just small businesses that have suffered, wholesalers who sold to airlines, hotels or large caterers have found themselves in the thick of it too.

Local foodie, Chicky Fonseka saw a gap to be filled, and many people’s livelihoods to be helped by linking producers who normally sold wholesale, to sell directly to consumers. She started this initiative to breathe life into an industry that is desperately in need of life support.

From there SaveOurSydney.com was born, Fonseka has put together a collective of local food producers onto an online platform where people can now purchase premium restaurant quality products straight from suppliers and have them delivered straight to their front door.

‘Having lost my café business 2 years ago, I know the mentally taxing feeling of trying to keep your business and staff afloat. I knew that my employment wasn’t stable and I wanted to contribute helping my friends and fellow foodies,’ she says.

During this time of uncertainty, there is a growing sense of community within the nation, particularly helping Aussie businesses stay afloat and come out the other side of the pandemic.

‘We normally wouldn’t think too much about where we get our produce, but now we see businesses crashing and so many people facing unemployment. We do our small part by buying from local businesses in hope that after all this, we’ll be able to return to them and their business will still be around,’ says Maria Navarra, one of the shoppers using Save Our Sydney’s services.

New suppliers and new products are listed weekly and the purchases made will help to keep these producers in business.

‘The larger, wholesale sizes and prices mean it is value for money, and during this pandemic, saving money is important to people,’ says Fonseka.

SaveOurSydney.com has something for every household, from certified gluten-free rages, vegan raw sweets, handmade yum cha, artisan non-alcoholic gin and tonics, falafels, canapes, just about anything you can think of.

For more info visit www.saveoursydney.com