Most of us have our favourite restaurants and bars, places where we meet with friends and family or share a quiet dinner for two.

While we can’t do that anymore, spare a thought for the café owner, the restaurateur, the proprietor – no customers, no income but with bills to pay.

That’s why we have joined forces with partners web.com, the company behind our online business directory, to offer local food outlets a bespoke ordering service to compete with the best. It’s called Eat Direct.

All the caterer has to do is take the online order, prepare the food then get it to the customer using their own delivery channels or by collection. Because we support and value these businesses just like you do, we’ve waived all set up fees and commissions for them - an immediate saving of £500 . That’s a life saver for an outlet faced with the high costs and transaction fees charged by the big players.

Eat Direct builds a web-enabled e-commerce menu tailored to the business to showcase meals and prices. That’s not all – each customer gets their very own iOS or Android app so customers can order from the safety of home on a smartphone. Finally, up to 138,000 UK food outlets with be featured on the Eat Direct app too from next week with special emphasis on those offering cook/collect or cook/deliver. We’ll publicise the name and details of all the local businesses who buy in and you can play your part by supporting them so they are still here and thriving ready for when life returns to the new normal.

Bournemouth Echo: Whatever the cuisine, Eat Direct has got it covered.Whatever the cuisine, Eat Direct has got it covered.

Morgan Stevenson, Newsquest Digital Transformation Director said: ““We’re all in this together. People isolated at home need to eat and drink - the best thing we can all do at this time is to support local restaurants and bars. Eat Direct lets the maximum revenue go directly to our local providers by avoiding hefty commissions.

“We’re there with you so sign up and we promise that within 24 hours we’ll be working on your web presence and apps so after just a few days you are back in the game,” Stevenson added.

If you are a restaurant or bar owner looking to activate local ordering for takeaway or delivery, just visit www.eatdirect.com/localiq and quote the promo code “localiq" to have your set-up fee waived. That alone saves £500 as our discount to you.