All for a good cause

Visitors to Melbourne have another reason to feel great about the city’s vibrant shopping and dining scenes, with many eateries and retail outlets now operating as social enterprises; that is, solely for the purpose of giving back to those in need.

The social enterprises that call Melbourne home vary in size and shape – and in the projects they support. They take the form of some of the city’s coolest laneway cafes and hip, hidden bars, and the assistance they provide ranges from food and water projects in Africa to creating employment opportunities for Melbourne’s Indigenous communities.

In Australia, there are more than 20,000 social enterprises, and Victoria is leading the charge – of the five finalists in the 2015 Australian Social Enterprise of the Year Awards (small category), four were Victorian.

Here is our list of the best social enterprises visitors can experience while in Melbourne:

DINING

Charcoal Lane – an Indigenous-menu restaurant that provides Aboriginal youth facing barriers to education and employment with on-the-job hospitality industry skills, training and experience.

Shebeen – a bar where you can drink a beer safe in the knowledge that 100 per cent of profits goes to a development project in the beer’s country of origin.

Streat – a group of cafes and a catering business that tackles youth disadvantage and homelessness by providing life-skills, work experience and training to young people who require a leg up. Streat also just won the Social Investment Award at the 2015 Social Enterprise Awards.

Feast of Merit - a communal dining house offering local, ethical and sustainable food, with all profits raised supporting youth education and youth leadership projects in Africa, India, Cambodia, and Australia.

Sorghum Sisters – an African-cuisine focused foodie enterprise that gives refugees the chance to complete a training course in hospitality.

Kinfolk – a busy city café that donates 100 per cent of its profits to four developmental projects.

Mad Cap Enterprises – a chain of cafes that offers a supportive work experience environment for people facing barriers to employment.

The Final Step – a cafe that uses its profits to fund a healthy food and activity program designed to feed underprivileged children in Argentina.

Lentil as Anything – a vegetarian restaurant that has a ”pay-as-you-feel” concept, meaning that anyone, regardless of their bank balance, can sit down in a restaurant environment and have a meal.

Crepes for Change – a crêpe van that channels all its profits towards eliminating youth homelessness.

Yume – an app to connect restaurants and diners, offering discounted food that would otherwise be wastage. Its aim is to stop a million kilograms of food from going to waste by the end of 2016.

SHOPPING

Dear Gladys – a boutique that houses a collection of vintage and contemporary clothing, but also supports women in need by providing them with appropriates clothes for job interviews.

The Social Studio – a clothing manufacturer and retail outlet that is also a training facility for newly arrived migrants and refugees from countries such as Africa and Afghanistan.

OTHER

Who Gives a Crap? – profits from this toilet paper range go to WaterAid to build toilets in the developing world.

Thankyou – an FMCG business that exists 100 per cent to fund safe water access, hygiene and sanitation programs and immediate food aid plus long-term food solutions through their range of premium water, body care and food products.

Second bite – an organisation established to provides access to fresh, nutritious food for people in need across Australia, by rescuing and redistributing surplus fresh food, building community capacity in food skills and nutrition and advocating for an end to food insecurity.