Editor’s note: since publication, ASRC Catering has temporarily closed its ordering system due to an overwhelming response and subsequent technical difficulties. Check back soon to place your order.

Hospo is hurting. Again. And today’s news of an extra seven days of lockdown, while understandable, feels like salt in the wound.

The Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC), which has been providing support to people seeking asylum in Australia for nearly 20 years, has also been hit by lockdown.

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It has a Melbourne-based social-enterprise catering arm that employs people from around the world and usually caters big events, weddings and parties. But with most of those sorts of events no longer going ahead, cancellations have started taking their toll.

In a tweet on Tuesday afternoon, ASRC founder and CEO Kon Karapanagiotidis said the centre had experienced almost $30,000 in cancellations – and today’s announcement would only increase that figure.

While Karapanagiotidis intends to pay his casual refugee staff regardless, he’s calling on Melburnians to make sure they’re kept busy. So, if you’re looking for a new takeaway option, why not help the ASRC book out its pick-up and delivery slots for the week.

The menu is a globe-trotting and delicious-sounding one. It includes sumac-dusted spinach-and-feta triangles; Middle Eastern-style dolmades with Aleppo pepper; fragrantly spaced biryani with roasted vegetables; masak lemak cili, a mild and creamy Malaysian curry packed with tofu and winter veggies; and ganache-filled profiteroles.

Order a meal for pick-up in Fitzroy North or delivery here.

asrc.org.au