Painting the way forward

HAYMES Helping Hand initiative is giving a Torquay cafe a fresh start following a difficult period for the hospitality industry.

Yummy Tummy Cafe has won up to $8,000 in trades and paint after entering the Australia-wide competition.

Delivered by Haymes Torquay store, the cafe has undergone a major makeover made by possible by the donation.

Haymes announced 43 overall winners which have received up to $8,000 in paint and service while an additional 83 runner-up prizes were awarded at the value $1,500 worth of paint.

Torquay manager Tim Dwyer said it was good to be able to give back to the community following a tough period brought on by the pandemic.

“It is awesome giving back to the community, I am the type of person who likes giving so I have been at Yummy Tummy every day helping with trades and painters,” he said.

“Just to see the transformation and the change in Kate’s attitude towards the business it awesome.

“She’s had the business for almost 10 years so to get something done like this it is a fresh start.”

The competition ran on social media with cafe owner Kate Newton attracting a number of votes from the public before taking out the top prize.

“The transformation has been huge,” Mr Dwyer said.”I told her she should enter and she said ‘nah I never win anything’ but since winning she has decided to renovate the whole business.”

Under the initiative two more Surf Coast businesses received grants, with Rippling Curls Hairdressing and Torquay Community House taking out the runner-up prizes for the region.

“It is great by Haymes, they have been awesome through the whole pandemic and to do this Australia-wide with so many businesses, that is a lot of money to fork out,” Mr Dwyer said.

Along with Haymes, Ms Newton said the project would not have been possible without the help of local good Samaritans volunteering their time including James Cummins, Des Smith, Matt Mathers, Steve Jewson, Robert Highlands and Dave Grimes.

“We have also had friends, and customers come in help us out,” she said.

After closing the business for five weeks to complete the transformation Ms Newton is now nearing competition with new equipment set to be delivered by Friday.

“I am bringing back the dirty old hotdog to Torquay,” she said.