By March 2020, Sydney was shut down and the Early Bird Cafe had shut too. The biggest concern was the health and wellbeing of our customers, volunteers and supporters. We knew we had to pivot if we wanted to continue serving brekky and supporting our community in a safe way.
Thankfully, we were able to reopen for take away service in June 2020. To make our service as safe as possible, we made a few changes:
- Switching to take away service instead of sit down meals
- Making sure every volunteer received aprons, masks and gloves
- Extended opening hours to help with social distancing
- Offering early vaccinations to our frontline volunteers and customers thanks to St Vincent’s Hospital Outreach service
It was a big effort from all involved and it saw us through the hardest days. We are pleased to share that we have remained open every single weekday morning since – including public holidays.