Cafes that give a fork

Melbourne is thriving with social enterprise businesses that put people over profits - from disadvantaged youth to migrant communities.

South Melbourne institution St ALi has teamed up with coffee order app Skip to raise money on International Women's Day for Papua New Guinea's Marawaka Women's Project. The popular cafe will serve up Marawaka coffee at the Sensory Lab stores in Collins Street, Little Collins Street, and Bourke Street, and ST. ALi in South Melbourne on Friday 8 March from 7-10am. The coffee has been produced a group of young entrepreneurial women in PNG's Eastern Highlands who have overcome the odds to export coffee. The coffee will be available for $2 exclusively through the Skip app with all proceeds, along with in store donations, will go towards the Marawaka Women's Project. St ALi, 12-18 Yarra Pl, South Melbourne; Sensory Lab Little Collins, 297 Little Collins St, Melbourne; Sensory Lab Rialto, Shop 9, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne; Sensory Lab Bourke St, Level 1 David Jones 310 Bourke St, Melbourne; Sensory Lab Collins St, Shop 1, 30 Collins Street, Melbourne.

The recent opening of Sibling in Carlton has put the concept back on the table (pun intended). The inner-north café is the offshoot – as the name states – to the popular socially-minded city outlet Kinfolk. Both cafes are staffed by volunteers with a focus on capacity building, specialised hospitality training and inclusivity. Along with providing a venue for workplace training, Sibling and Kinfolk donate 100 per cent of the profits to location and international causes, including the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre and The Cathy Freeman Foundation. The menus have been designed to celebrate local and seasonal produce with a focus on sustainable practices, along with small batch coffee and local wines. Sibling, 611 Nicholson St, Carlton North, Victoria, 3054. 0421 726 901; Kinfolk, 673 Bourke St, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000. 0412 711 381.

The support for the disadvantaged extends to regional Victoria with training and mentoring available for marginalised people beyond the state’s capital. Social Foundry café in Kyneton which opened last year runs short, medium and long-term programs that mentor and impart work-skills and life-skills to young people with limited opportunities in the Macedon Ranges. The not-for-profit business, located in a former car showroom, serves coffees, shakes and simple wholesome food. 86 Mollison Street, Kyneton, Victoria, 3444.

The MADCOW (make a difference, change the world) is a community café in Bendigo which provides good food at cheap prices. The café offers employment and training for youth as well as hosting free community breakfast to break the cycle of generational injustice aiming to help prevent family breakdown and homelessness. Located within the Life Essentials hub, the café aims to connect with disadvantaged and marginalised people. The café is part of a range of initiatives which also include youth mentoring programs, refugee training and employment, after school sports programs and homeless meals. 214 Hargreaves Street, Bendigo, Victoria, 3550. (03) 5441 4747.   

Disadvantaged youth

A handful of Melbourne cafes are tackling the issue of youth unemployment and homelessness one coffee at a time. Good2Go Coffee in Melbourne’s famous Hosier Lane provides at-risk youth with trainee programs to learn key employability skills, self-confidence and genuine work experience. Profits from the hole in the wall café are redirected back into the programs and services offered by Youth Projects, such as our Night Nurses and Foot Patrol teams. As well as supporting youth, visitors can purchase a drink or snack for a person experiencing homelessness through the “Pay it Forward Coffee” board. 7-9 Hosier Lane, Melbourne, Victoria, 3000. (03) 9945 2100.

Located on Cromwell Street in Collingwood, STREAT is a converted 1860’s manor turned café, coffee roastery, artisan bakery, meeting spaces and function rooms. Since opening their Cromwell site in 2016, STREAT has extended their footprint and youth training program with outlets at RACV Bourke St, Melbourne Central and RMIT University. STREAT provides supported vocational training and holistic personal support to marginalised and disadvantaged young people aged 16 to 24 in Melbourne.

The social enterprise team Society Melbourne behind Crepes for Change food truck and mobile Coffee Cart Changing Lives have opened a bricks and mortar micro-café in the inner-north neighbourhood of Brunswick. Along with specialty coffee, Home.one serves artisanal porridge and bircher creations in the morning and filled gourmet bagels in the afternoon. All profits are invested in a split-profit model between Eat Up Australia and in projects that exist to eliminate youth homelessness. Nightingale 1, 6 Florence Street, Brunswick, Victoria, 3056. 0450 900 194.

Tradeblock Café at the Victorian College for the Deaf is a fully operational café training Year 11 and 12 deaf students as part of their Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning. The menu, which changes daily, serves coffee, soups, sandwiches and baked good. Visitors to the café use the Tradeblock Café App to learn how to use Auslan, Australian Sign Language, to communicate and order with the staff behind the counter. The café is open during the school term. 597 St Kilda Road, Melbourne, Victoria,  3004. (03) 9510 1706.

Fitzroy’s Charcoal Lane dishes up gourmet native Australian flavours by young Aboriginal people who are in need of a fresh start in life. A Mission Australia social enterprise restaurant, Charcoal Lane specialises in fine-dining bush fare.The aim of the program is to create a skilled workforce for the hospitality industry, providing leadership and mentoring to help vulnerable young people achieve their potential and gain long-term independence and sustainable mainstream employment. 136 Gertrude St, Fitzroy, Victoria, 3065. (03) 9418 3400.