The Specialty Restaurant Association (SRA) lists nine low-cost ways for restaurants to build community ties, which it links to more customers, better visibility and brand image, and easier hiring and staff retention. The ideas run from sponsorships, ongoing donations, paid volunteer days and events on slow nights to local art and music, group discounts and buying from local producers.
What the SRA says community work pays back
The Specialty Restaurant Association (SRA) has published nine low-cost ways a restaurant can strengthen its place in the community. The benefits it points to are a better brand image and more visibility, more customers, and an easier job recruiting and keeping staff. The ideas fall into a handful of themes: giving money, giving time, opening up your space, featuring local people, and buying locally.
Sponsorships and donations that last
Backing a neighbourhood sports side or a community event is straightforward publicity. For a modest fee you typically get your logo on kits, signage or printed material, which gives you one more place to be seen.
The SRA's donation example is a long-term commitment rather than a one-off. Young's pubs teamed up with Wooden Spoon, a children's rugby charity, on an ongoing initiative whose money goes to a food bank programme, to assistance dogs and to wheelchairs for clubs in the area. A simpler version suits any restaurant: set aside a fixed percentage of your net profit, or of the sales of one named dish, for a local cause, and keep it running.
Put your team at the centre
The SRA suggests writing one or two paid volunteer days a year into staff contracts, and letting employees pick causes they care about instead of having one chosen for them. Another route is to shut the restaurant for one day each year and spend it volunteering together as a team, which the guide says strengthens bonds between colleagues while giving something back.
Make use of your space and your quiet nights
Rather than opening a naturally slow evening, such as a dead Monday, for the usual handful of covers, the SRA suggests using it for tastings, workshops or cooking classes. Offering the room to community groups in quiet hours works in a similar way. At one of its pubs, Young's holds 'Meet up Mondays' to tackle loneliness among older residents, and the guide points out that it also brings food and drink sales into a slot that would otherwise be empty.
Peter Cross, a Senior Lecturer quoted in the piece, argues for teaming up with local groups whose work lines up with yours, and says supporting the community goes beyond running a business to building "connection and shared values". His example is the London Geller College of Hospitality working with sustainable-food groups such as the Ealing Food Partnership.
Local artists, local music and targeted discounts
Two of the more unusual suggestions draw on local talent. Turn your dining-room walls into a rotating exhibition for local artists, with prices and contact details on display: the artist gains a real outlet for sales and you get free marketing. Live music from local performers builds links with the neighbourhood and brings in new faces as well.
On pricing, the SRA recommends discounts for particular groups, such as teachers, health workers, pensioners and students. It presents these both as goodwill and as a route to becoming that group's first choice.
Buy local and treat suppliers as partners
The SRA's last suggestion is to buy directly from farmers and producers in your area. It mentions fresher ingredients and fewer food miles, but its main argument is that local buying keeps money moving between local businesses and builds supplier relationships that last for years. Pythouse Kitchen Garden's director, Piers Milburn, says the suppliers they work with are trying hard to do things properly, and "that needs celebrating".
What this means for your restaurant
- Turn a one-off gesture into a standing commitment, such as a fixed share of one dish's sales going to a local cause.
- Look at your slowest night and weigh up a class, tasting, workshop or community meet-up against opening for a few thin covers.
- Build paid volunteer days into staff contracts and let your team choose the causes.
- Use what you already have: wall space for local artists, room for local musicians, and producers nearby you can buy from directly.
Sources
- 9 Ways Your Restaurant Can Build a Strong Relationship with Your Community — SRA (Specialty Restaurant Association)
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