Meals shared in time of need

Dan Moss, who runs Terroir Auburn with his wife Annika, was forced to close the restaurant's doors on March 22, but soon became determined to utilise the free time in a positive and productive manner.

"(The restaurant garden) was just sitting there in its prime time glory, and so we brainstormed, and thought about how we could use this produce to put a few meals together and give back to the community that has supported us for the last seven years," Dan said.

Dan and Annika decided to prepare free takeaway meals - made almost entirely of local produce - available for pickup on Wednesday nights.

"We did 75 portions on the first night and I think they went in about 22 minutes flat," Dan said.

He said the community's willingness to help out had "snowballed" in the weeks that followed.

"After the first week it just went gangbusters, everyone started donating excess produce out of their garden, or bags of rice or pasta," he said.

"Everyone wanted to jump on board to the point that the last three weeks, the offering has been completely and utterly donated."

He was also grateful for the support of Terroir Auburn's landlord, Majorie Moncrieff, who froze rental payments for the restaurant, with no payback.

"Majorie has been incredibly supportive since day dot," he said.

More than 1000 free meals have been provided by Terroir in the past five weeks, with Dan saying one of the highlights of the venture was the element of togetherness it provided - from a distance.

"We've served people I didn't know existed or lived in Auburn," he said.

"It's drawing people out to interact with other people, all we're doing is having a brief two-second chat and a smile, but it gets people out of the house, even if it is only for 20 minutes to grab a meal," he said.

"It's really grown from something that was just supposed to fill in some time in a healthy way and get through some produce, to something that is really community-orientated now, which is really nice considering things can be doom and gloom at the moment with all of this uncertainty."

He said the routine of preparing and cooking food gave him a "sense of normality" during such uncertain times.

"Those two days of prepping on the Tuesday or Wednesday, and Annika serving the portions, it gives a little taste of everything we used to love, and the only thing we really knew was cooking and looking after people," he said.

He urged South Australians to support small businesses as they started re-opening.

"South Australians are really proud of their food and wine culture, but we need to be more conscious of where we're putting our money, and support small business in SA to help keep the food dollar here," he said.

In Robe, the launch of Trilogy Community Meals has been equally successful, with more than 2300 free meals having been delivered to members of the public since the end of March.

Sam Everett, who owns Adventurous Spoon in Robe with partner Steph Dening, and co-owns Black Swan and Burger Co, said when he heard that many locals had lost jobs, his idea to help was to "just start cooking".

"It was fairly obvious that a fair few people had lost work, and the elderly didn't want to go out, so they needed some support as far as food goes," Sam said.

A mailbox survey was distributed to gauge locals' meal requirements, giving people the option to be part of the program.

"Everyone has been really appreciative, our biggest thing was to break through the social barriers of people being too proud to ask for help, but once we got through that, people just embraced it," he said.

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With Adventurous Spoon and Burger Co still operating on a takeaway basis, the venture is run out of the kitchen at Black Swan, with deliveries of frozen meals occurring almost every day.

"It's been good, and it's something that we'll continue on. There are a lot of the elderly that will need the help going forwards," he said.

Sam said while the venture had been funded almost entirely out of savings, it was for a worthwhile cause.

"We decided pretty early on that people getting fed was more important than making money, and we're only young and we can make more money later, so we thought we would just go for it," Sam said.