It’s On Us Corvallis, a project started by the Corvallis Sustainability Coalition to help both local restaurants and people who lost income during the pandemic, is partnering with Kuto, a Portland-based payment app. Both groups are dedicated to strengthening local economies. Using Kuto, IOU Corvallis is able to hand out their community donations as gift cards to local restaurants. It doesn’t cost the restaurant anything and helps keep money circulating within local businesses.
The partnership has already made ‘a big impact,’ according to IOU Corvallis’ press release. “Since IOU announced the partnership with 1,000 meals on Sept. 1, 2021, 90% of gift cards have been claimed and are now being used at restaurants throughout the community.”
Since it started in April of 2020, IOU Corvallis has put more than $250,000 of community donations back into local restaurants. Their partnership with Kuto will serve to streamline the process.
Kuto itself was developed by Kiyo Kubo, a software developer living in Portland. Kubo designed the app to make paying during the pandemic even easier, with fewer credit card fees and no need for cards or money to change hands. Kuto launched in Portland in October 2020 and has been adopted by many restaurants in the area. Kuto has also made its way down to Corvallis, so users can pay using Kuto at places like The Biere Library, Brass Monkey, Queen’s Chopstick, and Squirrel’s Tavern.
Correction: In our original article, we listed local restaurants which work with IOU Corvallis, however they do not currently work with Kuto. We have changed the list to include only restaurants working with both organizations.
By Jalen Todd
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