Hospitality exists beyond the walls of a restaurant, cafe, bar, hotel or food truck.

The thoughtful actions of Perth’s hospitality sector during the Covid-19 pandemic speak volumes about those that work(ed) while so many of us play(ed). The chefs that sweat onions. The baristas that pull shots. The bartenders that stir Negronis. The front-of-house staff that ensure the show goes on. Their venues may be shut, but Perth hospo staff continue to serve their community, day in, day out.

This is an edit of some of the happier local coronavirus stories. We hope they trigger ideas. We hope they help you decide where to funnel your dollars next time you get takeaway or supplies. But most of all, we hope they brighten your day during these extraordinary times.

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A five-star hotel housing Perth’s homeless
“Homelessness isn’t about design, it’s about circumstances,” says Rob Weeden, general manager of Pan Pacific Perth. “To get out of it, you just need someone to give you a hand.” Enter Hotels With Heart: a six-month pilot program that’s seen the 500-room hotel welcome people who are at-risk or experiencing homelessness. In addition to offering people somewhere safe to stay during their 14-day self-isolation periods, the program also aims to fast-track guests’ return to everyday life, and includes meals and activities (conducted at socially responsible distances). So far, 18 people have stayed at the Pan Pacific as guests of the hotel, and early signs are promising. “The goal is to get them into homes,” says Weeden. “They’ve reached milestones over the couple of weeks they wouldn’t have gotten to in their normal situations.”

Have empty dining room, will feed the community
Chefs simply won’t letting the government-enforced shutdown stop them from feeding others. The teams at Bread in Common and Gordon Street Garage, for instance, emptied the freezers of their mothballed restaurants and cooked 100 individual meals that food-rescue organisation OzHarvest will distribute to local charities. “It’s been a challenging few weeks,” admits OzHarvest state manager Jennifer Keen. “The support we’ve had from the hospitality industry has been amazing. It’s overwhelming to think that they were thinking of us despite everything that was going on.”

Chase Weber, Sean Middleton and Rohan Park, chefs at The Royal Hotel and The Standard have been working with students at Cyril Jackson high school in Bassendean to feed vulnerable members of the community. For Park, a former student at the school, getting on the pans to turn donated food into meals was the ultimate win-win. “Cooking for me isn’t just a career, it’s an outlet for my passion and, at times, it’s a coping mechanism,” he told ABC Radio in an interview. “It’s all I know. If I can use that to make someone else’s day a bit better, that’s what I’ll do.”

Every day from 7am till 1.30pm, Victoria Park cafe Bespoke by Barista HQ is offering free takeaway meals to international students, temporary visa holders and anyone else doing it tough.

Shout someone a pizza
Buy one for a neighbour. Or that person always doing good for the community. Or someone you know who’s had a bumpy ride of late. Maylands pizzeria Rossonero's new Shout a Buddy program lets customers pay it forward with free pizzas delivered to those that could do with a pick-me-up. People are welcome to purchase the pizzas themselves (in a bid to get more people involved, all of the pies at Rossonero have been discounted to $15) or to nominate others for some of the free pizzas Rossonero gives away each week.

Buy a frontline worker a coffee
Cafes continue to make mornings and afternoons that little bit more bearable. Telegram Coffee at State Buildings is giving free coffee to all healthcare workers, as is Maylands coffee stronghold and provieore Smoult’s, which has also extended its largesse to teachers. And Como’s The Little Matcha Girl is serving free coffees to hospo workers affected by coronavirus. Guests can get behind these cafes’ initiatives by pre-purchasing coffees for frontline staff.

(Or even better, buy them dinner)
By purchasing meals for frontline staff, you can support both healthcare professionals and hospitality businesses. Northbridge’s Bivouac Canteen has helped set up Perth Hospital Meals to deliver meals to Royal Perth Hospital; the Feed The Frontline program by A Moveable Feast is delivering meals to hospital staff as far as away as Northam; and the WA Mobile Food Vendors Association has set up Buy-A-Meal, a program to send coffees, treats and meals to frontline workers.