Image credit: Dine Smart
Social Food Projects and Events Melbourne
Are you a fan of eating and dining with purpose? Fantastic, so are we!
Here is a round up of some inspiring social food projects and events in Melbourne that allow you to enjoy your experience twice by offering you a fantastic meal/drink that goes to a deserving cause.
NEW! The Social Food Project – this social enterprise hosts unique community feasts and workshops to promote and educate about sustainability and fair food. To find out more about upcoming events like their Farmer to Table workshops, and special feasts have a look at their website here.
NEW! Open Table – this Melbourne based community organisation are fighting food waste and promoting community by creating free vegetarian feasts using rescued food. To find out about their upcoming free feasts, visit their website.
Tamil Feasts – Tamil Feasts is a social food project that has had a huge success since its launch in May 2015. The project supports long-term detainee Tamil men by providing them with employment and hospitality experience. Tamil Feast’s weekly three-course dinners are held every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday night in the Merri Table Café at 7:00pm. The cost for adults is $30, and childrens meals are catered for too, at $20.
Note: Want your Tamil Feast to go a bit longer? BYO take-away container and the Tamil Feasts staff will fill it up for you, for a donation of only $5.
Dine Smart If you’re in Melbourne between November to December, make sure you organise to dine at restaurants that are part-taking in the Dine Smart initiative. $2.00 from every bill will go towards Dine Smart projects that assist people experiencing homelessness.
Free to Feed Melbourne – this is a newly launched pop-up cooking school run by refugees and asylum seekers. You can also organise a gathering at your home and one of their instructors will cook for you. This includes a 2 hour cooking class and a meal. For upcoming cooking classes browse here and for home gathering bookings, visit their website.
Scarf Dinners – launched in 2010, Scarf is a unique dining concept in Melbourne – their ethos? That hospitality can transform lives and we can’t agree more. Through their amazing seasonal pop up dinners they partner with some of Melbourne’s best restaurants to give young refugees, asylum seekers and new migrants front of house training, mentoring and work experience. When you attend a Scarf dinner, you will be served by a Scarf trainee and see the direct impact of your support.
Café Smart, CafeSmart brings together coffee roasters, cafés and coffee drinkers to help people who are homeless. On one selected day each year, participating cafes will donate $1.00 per coffee sold to fund local Café Smart projects. If you are in town, do have your coffee at a participating café to support the initiative.
