Volunteers and members of Twin Transit load coolers of meals into vans before being delivered to seniors at high risk to COVID-19 to limit their exposure, Wednesday morning in the parking lot of James W. Lintott Elementary School in Chehalis.
Malisa Lee takes an order for South Pacific Bistro on the phone while standing next to a spit shield installled to help prevent the spread of COVID-19, Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
South Pacific Bistro is located at 432 SW 13th Street in Chehalis.
Malisa Lee hands out a to-go order for South Pacific Bistro Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
An order is displayed after being plated at South Pacific Bistro Wednesday morning in Chehalis.
Maleah James, COVID-19 Program Response Specialist at Twin Transit talks about the planning behind delivering almost two thousand meals to seniors Wesnesday morning in Chehalis.
Twin Cities Rotary is working to help local restaurants by purchasing coupons to give to students or senior citizens in the hopes it will bring in more business to restaurants that are feeling the negative effects of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“Every restaurant that we spoke to afterward said that they had a big influx of people and said that they appreciated what we did,” said Don Wilson, membership chair with Twin Cities Rotary.
The restaurant program involves purchasing and handing out 50 coupons to students in the Centralia and Chehalis School Districts and 25 to senior citizens to use at a preselected restaurant on a designated Wednesday. Each coupon costs $10 and the restaurants receive the cash advance of either $250 or $500 from the Twin Cities Rotary for the purchase of the coupons.
“Depending on the restaurant, some places will give anyone with a coupon anything on the menu and some treat it as $10 off. The money to purchase the coupons helps the restaurants a little bit but we are hoping that with the amount of advertising on that day people will go and overwhelm the restaurant and help them out,” said Cathrine Cleveland, head of the Twin Cities Rotary public image committee.
Cleveland said that Twin Cities Rotary is selecting local restaurants that they know have been struggling during COVID-19 closure. She said that she’s heard from some of the involved restaurants that the coupons brought in the most business the owners have seen since the pandemic hit.
The program has already helped out four restaurants in Centralia and Chehalis — Sweet Inspirations and Flood Valley Brewing Craft Taphouse in Chehalis and Main Street Grill and Boccata Restaurant in Centralia.
Wilson is the Twin Cities Rotary member who brought the restaurant program idea to the local area.
“I ran across this idea from one of the rotary clubs in Vancouver, Washington. They did something similar,” he said.
Joe Clark, director of Twin Transit, who has been involved with getting meals delivered to senior citizens has also been involved with the restaurant program by delivering the meal coupons out to seniors with the meals.
The funding for the restaurant program came from the Twin Cities Rotary members as well as through a grant from their rotary district.
The restaurants that will be assisted by the program in the coming weeks are South Pacific Bistro and Once Upon A Thyme in Chehalis. They are still speaking with other restaurant owners to determine the other two that will be a part of the program.
Patty Harris, owner of Sweet Inspirations in Chehalis, said that the coupons handed out by the rotary caused a spike in the number of people coming into her restaurant.
“It was an overall positive experience,” she said.
