By Richard Bruinsma

A Maleny brother-and-sister’s desire to support the community has spread from the hinterland all the way down to the Salvation Army in Nambour.

Tammy Leacy and Dom Venditti, who bought Cappriccios Italian Restaurant earlier this year from their parents, hosted a special “pop up” restaurant to feed some of the community’s needy.

But, while there, they also distributed a whole range of winter items – blankets, beanies, scarves and woolly socks – that had been donated for their cause by the Maleny community.

Ms Leacy said the duo had wanted to hold a staff bonding event that also benefitted the community, so they contacted the Salvation Army to see how they could help.

“We had already done one staff bonding event, and we decided that the next one we wanted to reach out with a bit of charity, so I thought, ‘Salvos soup kitchen, and maybe we could be involved with something like that’, and it just escalated from there to become a pop-up restaurant,” Ms Leacy explained.

“They mightn’t get a chance to do this very often, so it’s just a bit of a collaboration with the Salvos and some good feels, make everyone happy, everyone’s having a blast.”

At a time when many businesses – including restaurants - are struggling due to a flat economy, it could be easy for such ideas to be very sensibly shelved, but the duo said the financial cost was actually minimal - all the staff volunteered their time for the night, as did their regular acoustic musician, as well as their parents.

“We’re closed on Monday night’s but tonight we got the staff into it and everyone is super keen to do it, so, yeah, we’re all having good fun,” Mr Venditti explained.

“We worked it out and it doesn’t really cost us too much, and we don’t mind putting in from our own pocket really, it’s not an issue”.

For the 25 guests, it was a welcome treat on a chilly winter’s night – garlic bread, spaghetti bolognaise and tiramisu for dessert, made with “mum’s secret family recipe”.

“It’s people who just don’t get out, who can’t afford to go out - some homeless people, people on very low incomes, people going through domestic violence, people who haven’t had a chance to sit down, relax and have a lovely time, going out for dinner, and people are here enjoying themselves having a great time, talking, listening to beautiful music, just making the atmosphere so fantastic,” Salvation Army Nambour community worker Rosemary Campbell, said.

“It’s just a night that unites everybody, where people who’ve become very isolated and very lonely, it unites them where they’ve come out, they’ve spent time talking, and it’s been lovely because our lovely hostesses have also sat down and talked to the guests who have come along.”

Ms Leacy and Mr Venditti encouraged other businesses also considering such community events to take the step out and just do it.

“Just start, put it out there, if you want to do something, and it’s like the big snowball effect, and it feels good along the way,” Ms Leacy said. “There needs to be more of it.”

Mr Venditti added: “It’s rewarding for everyone, and we’re happy also if anyone wants to collaborate with us.”