This Thursday between 11am and 11pm every hamburger, steak sandwich and salad sold at Grill’d Wollongong goes towards a scholarship at the University of Wollongong. It comes just weeks before the new Shellharbour Grill’d Restaurant opens in July. As work starts on a purpose built restaurant just outside the western entrance to Stockland Shellharbour job applications are about to open.

“We will start looking for team members for Shellharbour in May. We had 400 applicants when we opened Wollongong. We are looking for 60 team members in Shellharbour and we want to train the bulk of them in Wollongong,” Lube Markovski said,

The Markovski family are expecting to employ many more soon as well as they talk to council about locating a Grill’d store on the Wollongong foreshore and the university about one on campus. But the immediate focus is the first annual Grill’d Scholarship Day on Thursday. It comes as the Wollongong store plans a few gourmet additions to the menu and improvements to the bar which could soon serve tap beer.

“I am really excited about the Grill’d Scholarship Day because it allows somebody who would not normally be able to go to uni to do so. Community involvement is a really big part of Grill’d. So we are looking for somebody who has got a strong connection with the local community. Someone who reflects the values of Grill’d. There is a process where applicants apply and then there is a board who will interview them all. And I will be part of the process interviewing the final four,” Mr Markovski said.

The idea was born when the university recommended an education group be part of one of the monthly Local Matters initiatives.

“They sat down with me and we started talking about how we can connect more with the university. The more we spoke the more I realised we wanted to do something significant with them..and the scholarship idea just developed,” Mr Markovski said.

Grill’d hopes to raise over $5000 on Thursday. And with Shellharbour and possibly a third store online in 2017 the total is expected to climb. “It will be this time every year. The uni has been phenomenal. They have used all their social media connections. We help a lot of community groups through Local Matters..and this is big”.