Toronto is filled with great restaurants that are working hard for your business, so give it to them! On Tuesday September 9th, Toronto restaurant owners are hoping that tens of thousands of people will abandon brown bag lunches and cooking at home to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner in the city's restaurants.

The "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" campaign is the initiative of cheapeats toronto editor Alexa Clark. She's spearheading this campaign to help Toronto's restaurant industry recover from the lingering effects of SARS and Mad Cow - problems that caused a $325 million decline in tourism expenditures since March 2nd and a $180 million drop in restaurant revenue.

"We don't have to sit idly by waiting for tourists to save our hospitality industry, " Clark said. "If everyone who eats out just once more a week - especially at the small independent restaurants - it will make a big difference."

The concept is quite simple. On Tuesday, September 9th, Clark is asking Torontonians to eat all their meals - breakfast, lunch and dinner - at a restaurant. Then for the remainder of September, they can continue to help the hospitality industry get back on its feet by eating out for one extra meal a week.

According to a recent Centennial College demonstration of the "Restaurant Ripple Effect", every dollar spent in a restaurant creates an additional $1.78 of economic activity - significantly more than if that same dollar was spent in a retail store, where it creates only $1.50 of activity.

So try the breakfast special at your local greasy spoon, get your coworkers to join you for dim sum at lunch and take someone special out to that romantic spot you've always wanted to try.

On September 9th, Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is!

To find out how you can help get the word out, and more about the "Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is" campaign, visit www.putyourmoney.com .