Bec's blogs

Kids in the kitchen

by Bec on 15 July 2010

You may have seen the small mention of STREAT in The Age’s Epicure yesterday. The article mentioned how we source our food from Original Foods—and proudly so, because they’re a sustainable catering company who uses local, seasonal and organic produce.

But not all of our food comes from Original Foods. What the article didn’t have space to tell you is that not all of our food is sourced through them. On Tuesdays and Wednesdays our youth are in the kitchen with training chef Janis Munro, cooking up batches of food for the following week. Last week was Spicy Thai pumpkin soup, and tomato and vegetable soup—big favourites if you’ve been to our food carts. Here’s a few pics of our trainees hard at work last week in the kitchen—and what they had to say about their cook-up.

My new pair of kicks

by Bec on 30 June 2010

Fortunately my corporate business suits have been getting moth balled for quite some time now and my usual work attire is a STREAT t-shirt, pair of torn jeans and some old kicks. I’ve worn this one particular pair of sneakers throughout my journey building STREAT. In fact I bought them for 20 bucks in New York when I was overseas checking out some other social enterprises in late 2008.  About six months ago the sole started totally giving out. And after they got soaked in the huge hailstorm a couple of months ago they’ve just been hanging in there. Last week they really died.

Well I’m proud to say they’ve now been replaced by my new pair of Etiko fair-trade, organic cotton sneakers I’d been eyeing off for ages. As the box said ‘I’m your new pair of fair trade, ethically made, earth lovin’, world changing, dance floor re-arranging Etiko sneakers.’ I haven’t laid down any moves on the dance floor with them (yet) but I did capture their first outing with me and Will, my two year old son.  Can’t wait to get them dirty on the streets of Melbourne!

Sleeping rough is rough in winter

by Bec on 23 June 2010

One of the things that struck me most when I visited Montreal and Toronto in December 1999 was how many homeless people there were on the streets. It was the middle of winter and the temperature plummeted between -10C to -20C each night. I couldn’t conceive that there were people lying directly over the grates on the snow-covered pavement in the cities to keep warm from the rising steam. Chris, the friend I was staying with, said most nights at least one person would be found dead on the grates after they got damp and froze to death.

Whilst Melbourne doesn’t get as cold as Canada, we still have thousands sleeping rough on our icy cold winter nights. Last Thursday night a bunch of Melbourne CEOs joined them as part of Vinnie’s CEO Sleepout. I was supposed to be amongst them but pulled out at the last minute because I caught the cold that’s been doing the rounds of our office. After much deliberating I made the decision that it wasn’t worth getting pneumonia and potentially jeopardising STREAT’s own work trying to stop homelessness. As I climbed into bed on Thursday night I was acutely aware that thousands in Australia don’t have the luxury of this choice.

Our greatest power is the way we spend our money

by Bec on 7 May 2010

I have a strong belief that as consumers our greatest power is the way we spend our money. And if we strive to change as many lives as possible with each purchase, we'll start to recreate our economy to be fairer and more just. I was reminded of this on Tuesday night when I heard Kohinoor Yeasmin, the CEO of Tarango, talk about her work in Fair Trade, micro-enterprise and grassroots economic empowerment programs with women in Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Her inspirational talk, which was held at the Abbotsford Convent Bakery and part of Fairtrade Fortnight, told the stories of a handful of the women whose lives had been transformed. She reminded me that whenever we buy a cup of fair trade coffee, each bean in each cup is imbued with stories. Stories of the women who planted the coffee plant, and then toiled in the heat to harvest the beans. Stories of the people who were fairly paid for their hard day's work planting, picking, drying and transporting the beans to our shores. But the stories of empowerment don't have to end once the beans reach Australia. I shared with the gathering the stories of STREAT's coffee which is roasted and blended in partnership with the Convent Bakery. Youth in STREAT's program who have suffered from homelessness learn about the roasting process, and help grind and package the coffee whilst receiving a fair wage for their work. The coffee is then purchased by customers and 100% of the profit goes back to helping those same youth receive vocational and life skills at STREAT. By buying STREAT Coffee the beans get imbued with even more stories of transformation, and we blend together the stories of people from opposite sides of the globe.

I think there's a strong philosophical alignment between the Fair Trade, organic and social enterprise movements, and I'd like to find more ways for us to work together. And by doing so I think we'll create products like STREAT's coffee which are triple certified—they are Fair Trade, organic and socially just at the local level.

Lights. Camera. Action.

by Bec on 23 April 2010

Today the STREAT team did their very first TV interviews on location at the carts at Fed Square. And it seems Imogen and Jamie, two of our trainees, are media naturals as well as fast learners on the sizzling grill (thanks for the Seekh kebabs and Kashmiri chick pea curry for lunch!). At lunchtime they were interviewed with me for a story due to air on Channel 31 in mid May. And despite their initial nerves both of them commented that the interview was easier than they'd thought it would be. Way to go guys!