Cafés


Eating is Not a Privilege

Feeding Your Family…

Your Human Right*

*Article 25.1 – http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

UrCommunity’s Feeding Australia programs aim to Assist the 4 Million Australians1 who are living at or below the poverty line by providing them with :-

Free nutritious meals2

Every day of the week

UrCommunity Café Model

The cafés provide an opportunity for customers to engage with others, by offering a range of programs and services where the individual chooses the level of their engagement. The programs and services offered will be in keeping with the philosophy of UrCommunity and include:

  • Access to free and low cost meals
  • Access to free or low cost organic fruit and vegetables
  • Activities on key topics of interest to the community
  • Art programs
  • Guest speakers
  • Demonstrations from other community groups
  • Discussion workshops

Healthy Food Hub Model

In order to increase the access to fresh and nutritious meals at affordable prices, we have developed a scaled-down and unique version of our UrCommunity Café Model. We’re calling it the Healthy Food Hub (HFH).

The key differences between the Healthy Food Hubs and the cafés include:

  • HFH sites will act as a kiosk distribution centre for the healthy meals, salads, soups and desserts which will be prepared off-site by Community Chef, a certified & recognised quality supplier.
  • HFH’s will feature low-cost, nutritious meals/soups/desserts that will only need to be re-heated, as well as salads & desserts.

This operation of this model reduces the equipment, storage and personnel costs required to run and manage these sites compared to the standard café model. This will allow a quicker scale-up to establish more HFH’s to provide greater assistance and further opportunities to more local communities.

Additional benefits offered by the HFH

  • HFH’s will feature a limited menu of low-cost, gourmet sandwich/focaccia/wraps, which are made-to-order and sold at a low cost, along with a range of coffees/teas/drinks and healthy sweet treats
  • Will offer low-cost or free organic fresh fruit & vegetables
  • Will showcase discounted produce/goods sourced from small local and regional suppliers

Café and HFH Volunteer Staff Engagement

We focus on five interdependent communities to realise inclusiveness, promote connectedness, capture & tell stories/journys/paths and ensure the ongoing success of the community business.

The five communities being engaged are:

  • Refugee & Asylum Seeker Community
  • Disability Community
  • Youth Community
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Community
  • Older Persons’ Community

The volunteer staff will receive training from Registered Training Organisations (RTO’s) as well as in-house training from the experienced management and mentoring, team undertaking the community business programs. All participants receive sufficient training to ensure that they can utilise the UrCommunity Timebanking System, and are work-ready with support from employment agencies. The aim is to assist each individual who wishes to participate to self-determine and reach their own outcomes. The main measure of the success of the model will be participants’ assessments of whether or not their chosen outcomes were realised.

  • Some of the participants will also have the opportunity of receiving additional tertiary training relevant to their own aspirational needs, dependent upon which role they are fulfilling in the Café or HFH, as part of the developed business model.
  • The Cafés & HFH’s will engage volunteer staff from within these communities utilising “time credits” under the UrCommunity Timebanking System (for more information, please browse and register on our homepage www.UrCommunityTmebanking.org.au

This allows all those participating or attending the UrCommunity Café or HFH to be part of a unique model that is centred on the values of trust, inclusiveness, connectedness and respect, giving members the opportunity to share meals, stories, issues and participate in a true community space, regardless of their financial situation, background, preferences, circumstances, physical or mental standing.

Café & Hub Locations

HFH Altona North – Inside the Altona North Community Library, corner of Millers and McArthurs Roads, Altona North.

If you’re interested in becoming a UrCommunity team member or finding out more, please go to our Volunteering page under Programs or Contact Us.

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Join our team

1. http://www.acoss.org.au/images/uploads/ACOSS_Poverty_in_Australia_2014.pdf

2. Please note that our free meal program is available at our cafés EVERY day of the week. Our UrCommunity Hubs will supply free meals at specific days and times as advertised at each Hub site. (Please note that until a café is established the use of the term café on this site or any of our other literature, refers to the HFH)