Kiwis can eat to their hearts content this month knowing a visit to their favourite restaurant is also a chance to help those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle.
Over 200 restaurants - including the likes of Ebisu, Azabu, Bar Céleste, The Grove, Cassia, Gemmayze and Coco’s Cantina - are taking part in the Emergency DineAid Campaign that runs throughout March.
It aims to raise more than $200,000 by giving diners the chance to make a gold coin donation when paying their bills.
Everything raised will be go to Mayoral Relief Funds in regions where flooding, landslips and severe gales destroyed homes and roads and in some cases tragically took lives.
Lucien Law - managing director of Savor Group - said his Ebisu, Azabu, Azabu Mission Bay, Amano, MoVida, Ortolana and The Store restaurants are all taking part.
“We’re lucky to be going out and having a good time,” he said.
“And if you’re dining out and talking with friends and family ... I guarantee the conversation will switch to friends in the Bay and those regions heavily affected.”
“And then you get to do something good at the end of your meal.”
The Emergency DineAid Campaign will be run along the same lines as the annual DineAid fundraisers that are held in the run-up to each Christmas.
Founded by restaurateurs in 2012, the DineAid charity fundraisers have collected close to $1m in the past decade, which has been given to charities running food banks for those in need over the holiday season.
Lucien Law is founder of Savor Group which owns 10 prominent Kiwi restaurants, including Britomart's Ebisu and Ponsonby's Azabu.
Those dining at Azabu Mission Bay and other restaurants around the country can make a gold coin donation to disaster relief funds this March.
Law’s restaurants have taken part in the annual DineAid fundraisers and said he was even more excited to get involved in this disaster relief campaign due to the enormous scale of devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle.
“It’s going to take a collective effort from everyone to get involved and help and that is where restaurants can be helpful,” he said.
Mark Gregory from DineAid and also the NZME-owned restaurant booking site Restaurant Hub said 100 per cent of the money raised would go to relief funds due to the charity’s sponsor Wall Real Estate paying for all costs incurred.
About 234 restaurants across the country from Queenstown and Wellington to Auckland are already onboard with another 20 likely to come onboard soon, he said.
It will work by having waiters and others ask customers if they’re willing to pay an extra $2 or $3 per table on top of their bill.
Britomart's Amano is among more than 200 restaurants helping raise money this month for those affected by Cyclone Gabrielle. Photo / Fiona Goodall
Cafes, bars and takeaway eateries can also take part by including a note on their menus asking people to make a gold coin donation if they wish.
Gregory said that the campaign could raise a lot of money because although the donations are small at a few dollars per table, the volumes of customers served by the hospitality industry is large.
“It works because it’s a small amount which is not painful and we as an industry work in volume,” he said.
“Obviously lots of people go out to enjoy themselves and to add a little something to a dish or to the table bill, it’s easy.”
Gregory said DineAid was also asking its members to provide additional support by making extra effort to buy good from affected regions once those producers are back up and running.
“We are a massive purchasing industry in hospitality,” he said.
“So if we can look at our wine lists and look at our menus and buy as soon as they’re able to from local suppliers in the areas affected - so we hunt them out rather than them trying to try find us.”
Law agreed, saying these regions produced some of the best wine and lamb in the world.
“It’s such a great food bowl for New Zealand,” he said.
