Yes, you can eat great food and do a lil’ good for the world at the same time.
Increasingly, across Australia, we’re seeing cafes – and even a lunch delivery businesses – where the profit goes towards doing something good for others. The money you pay for the coffee you grab on the way to work, or the lunch you share with a friend, could help those who are dealing with unemployment, financial or housing crisis, mental illness or language barriers.
(‘For Love Not Money’) and are a restaurant and café, respectively, located in Sydney’s Surry Hills. They are owned and run by the same team and are right next door to each other – Folonomo (which describes itself as a “profit for purpose” restaurant) is the dinner outpost, and Gratia the daytime one. Many dishes at the café have a health-driven edge (brown rice salad spiked with kimchi for example) but there’s also a jamón and egg roll to knock your socks off. At dinner, enjoy finer feeds like chicken liver velouté or braised lamb with black cabbage and liquorice. The spaces themselves are both super chic – so much so that you’d hardly know 100 per cent of their profits go to charity. Half of that goes to causes supported by purechange.org, and the other half to causes selected by customer votes.
isn’t a restaurant; it’s a lunch delivery service. Celebrity chefs – think Matt Moran, Kylie Kwong and Yotam Ottolenghi – design recipes for salads and soups, which are then made by women living in domestic violence shelters. These lunches are delivered out to worker bees and for every meal sold, another is sent to a domestic violence shelter or to someone sleeping rough. And we can tell you from experience, every meal we’ve had has been hands-down delicious. Feeding two of of you will often only set you back $13–$14, so it’s also a bargain.
Situated underneath the YMCA in central Sydney, is a new restaurant where all proceeds go towards essential services and support for victims of domestic violence [read our earlier article about Song ]. And there’s no need to expect lesser quality food and drink as a result – head chef Charlotte Gonzales-Poncet has worked at some of Sydney’s best restaurants, including and , and sommelier Sophie Otton ran the cellar at before she came on board. It’s got a Mediterranean vibe with dishes like handmade pasta and charcuterie boards, all to be enjoyed as share-plates, such is the spirit of charity.
not only utilise a team of volunteers to run their café and catering business, but they donate 100 per cent of their profits to their charity partners, too (almost $176K since opening in 2010, in fact). Customers even get to decide who gets what, by dropping a coffee bean into the charity jar of their choice as they leave. Charities include the , , where lunches are held to bring people and communities together, and the , which helps to support Indigenous children reach their potential. Plus the food is delicious too – think glam’d up toasties and healthy brekkies like lemon coconut quinoa porridge.
Rather than donate its profits to charity, Espresso Train is the charity, so every cent you spend there goes directly into the charity pot. A project by , the Brisbane café provides a meaningful, sustainable workplace for those experiencing a mental illness, or learning or intellectual disability. Pop into the café or utilise their catering service for your next event. Either way, you’ll be doing something good while drinking that flatty.
Source: Espresso Train
Right in the heart of Darwin you can find , a shop and café that gives 100 per cent of its profits to community projects, providing support to Indigenous people keen to learn how to earn successfully and sustainably. The bush tucker café is open on weekdays for breakfast and lunch and the menu includes loads of native produce – like muntrie, Kakadu plum and finger lime granola, salads laced with aniseed myrtle, and sandwiches stuffed with bush tomatoes. There’s even damper with wild rosella jam for afters.
At in South Perth, 100 per cent of the profits go to , a charity which supports locally-driven businesses and education projects in the poorest communities of Australia and overseas. To go alongside that silky-smooth coffee, try a slice of their passionfruit cheesecake to sweeten the deal. After something more savoury? We’re got our eyes on their pulled pork benedict for brekky and their generously plated braised lamb salad with bourghal, peas and pomegranate for lunch.
is only a year old but it’s already got quite the following. Although they don’t scream and shout about it, it’s actually a not-for-profit which trains people who have experienced long-term unemployment, have a mental or physical disability or a lack of language or numeracy skills. And the food is all kinds of amazing – produce-led, dishes like caramelised banana bread with cashew and orange cream for brekky and seasonally-bedecked, hand-made pasta for lunch have our name on them.
