You can already help feed healthcare workers on the frontline of the Covid-19 crisis via crowdfunding campaigns such as Brisbane’s Feed the Frontline. But now you can buy them a beer as well.
That’s the idea behind The Good Beer Co’s newly launched campaign, A Good Beer Always Helps. The Queensland-based social enterprise company has teamed up with independent breweries across the country to create a new system that allows Aussies to thank essential-services workers by shouting them to four-packs of craft beer and sending messages of support.
Eligible workers include healthcare professionals, cleaners, supermarket employees, teachers, paramedics and police officers. The Good Beer Co’s James Grugeon says the campaign is also designed to create exposure and move stock for craft brewers that have been affected by the federally mandated shutdown of restaurants, pubs and cafes.
“I thought, why not a campaign that helps essential-services workers by asking others to donate a four-pack and give them a message of support saying how much they appreciate their work,” Grugeon says. “But also, why don’t we then generate orders through that campaign for our craft breweries, so we give them a bit of a shot in the arm.”
Grugeon has collaborated on the campaign with Sydney’s Modus Operandi Brewing, Melbourne’s Stomping Ground Brewing Co, Brisbane’s Newstead Brewing Co, Adelaide’s Sparkke, Tasmania’s Van Diemen Brewing, Perth’s Otherside Brewing Co, Canberra’s Capital Brewing Co and Gold Coast-based non-alcoholic indie brewer Sobah.
“When James approached us and asked if we would like to be involved we jumped at the chance,” Sparkke co-founder Kari Allen said in a news release. “Yes, we’re doing it tough at the moment – but being part of an effort to express our gratitude to the people keeping us safe is really good for our morale. And of course, the sales support is just so valuable to us.”
A $20 donation via the Pozible page purchases a four-pack of a core-range beer that’s then allocated to an essential-services worker’s local independent brewery. This is an entirely not-for-profit operation, Grugeon says, with the donation covering the costs for the brewing partners. Workers can register to receive their beers via The Good Beer Co’s website by signing up with a work email address or uploading some other form of credentialed ID.
Grugeon has watched with interest the Covid-19-related food campaigns that have sprouted around Australia in recent weeks, but says he drew particular encouragement from Glasgow-based Brewgooder’s One On Us campaign, which has been using donations to send four-packs of beer to National Health Service workers in the UK.
“At the same time I was thinking, what can I do personally to help essential-services workers, who as far as I’m concerned are always there for us at all times?” he says. “They’re what’s keeping our country going right now.”
A Good Beer Always Helps started taking donations on Monday April 6. The first beers will be delivered in mid to late April.
