Australia’s Sought-After Restaurants Auction Valentine’s Day Table for Charity

Ahead of Valentine’s Day food lovers can bid for a table at more than 70 of Australia’s most popular restaurants, with all proceeds helping to end world hunger.

Restaurants in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, and Canberra, as well as one each in Singapore and Tokyo, signed on to support The Hunger Project Australia’s A Table to End Hunger campaign.

Bidding, via eBay, on the first round of restaurants ends Thursday. More restaurants were announced on Tuesday with bidding open until 7 February.

All reservations include a meal for two and a bottle of wine, with some restaurants offering additional perks including accommodation, gifts and meet-and-greet experiences with the chef.

The Hunger Project Australia’s head of marketing and partnerships, Melissa Bergin, told Pro Bono News working with businesses was a great way to raise money for, and awareness of, their cause.

“We’ve had a fantastic response from restaurants… we’ve tripled the amount of restaurant partners since last year when we first launched the campaign,” Bergin said.

“So we now have over 70 restaurants involved who are all really excited to participate and do their part in making a difference and helping to end world hunger.

“From the punters out there the bidding is going really well, and most of the restaurants have been getting bids, and we’re excited about the results especially in the last 24 hours of bidding I’m sure they’ll really pick up.

“People are really engaging with it, I think they’re seeing it as a great opportunity to be able to treat themselves and spoil a loved one on Valentine’s Day as well as to be able to make a difference and give back, and help end world hunger.”

She said The Hunger Project made a “wish list” of restaurants they wanted to have on board, and restaurants involved in the campaign include big names like Quay, Ester, Bennelong, Automata, Tipo 00, Minamishima, Momofuku Seiobo, ACME, Chin Chin and Sean’s Panorama.

Momofuku Seiobo executive chef Paul Carmichael said: “This is a great cause and we’re glad to be part of it. It’s great to be able to help those who are less fortunate and feed people beyond the guests in our restaurant.”

Bergin said restaurant partners were excited to sign on when they learnt about the impact their donated table could have.

“We simplified the ask of what we wanted from them to get involved this year, and so we put together a special pack with a proposal and we sent that out to all of the restaurants, so that included a red heart-shaped balloon [and] information on the hunger project,” she said.

“A lot of them responded to that alone, and we also communicated… the impact that they would be making by donating a table on Valentine’s Day, including a meal and a bottle of wine.

“Say $500 would be the value of them providing a table and a full meal and bottle of wine, that that would enable us to train 400 mothers on how to feed their children nutritious food so they could help break the cycle of malnutrition and have kids that are growing up healthy.

“Basically showing the bang for their buck, that their donation is having an impact on transforming many lives of people living in chronic hunger in Africa, India and Bangladesh where we work.”