Madison County creates gift-card program to support local restaurants

WAMPSVILLE, N.Y. — Madison County is looking for local restaurants to participate in a gift-card matching program called “Madison Local Eats.”

Businesses have until Wednesday to register, Madison County said in a news release.

It allows people to register for vouchers for their favorite Madison County restaurant and “double their money.”

“We are committing up to $500,000 in matching funds for this gift-card program,” Madison County Board Chairman John Becker said. “For over a year we have watched as our local businesses have been hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Between the shutdown, curfews, and other executive orders, our businesses have had to come up with creative ways of staying afloat.  Now that things are starting to open back up, we want to help our businesses get back on their feet.”

“Madison Local Eats” is a program of Buy Madison County. The way the program will work is customers will be able to sign up for vouchers that they will exchange for either a $50 or $100 gift card.  They will be able to pick which food location they want to support, and a user can choose more than one.

They will then bring the voucher to the business to get it redeemed. At that point, the customer will pay either $25 for a $50 gift card — or $50 for a $100 gift card.  Madison County will reimburse the restaurant for the other half of the gift card, the county said.

The Madison County reimbursement comes from the $13.7 million that the county received as part of the federal American Rescue Plan Act. 

Any independently owned restaurant in Madison County that would like to participate in “Madison Local Eats” can visit go to www.buymadisoncountyny.com to sign up. 

Madison County plans on making the voucher program live for the public on June 29.  Additional details will follow. 

If you are a local business and would like more information, go to website www.buymadisoncountyny.com or call 315.366.2822. 

Visual credit: www.buymadisoncountyny.com