Our History

We opened our arms and little street food cart to our first nine homeless young people in 2010. Since then, we’ve built a large portfolio of food social enterprises that have served nearly four million customers, all whilst providing over 60,000 hours of support and training to more than 3,000 young people, learn more in our first decade report.

Our timeline shows some of the key achievements and milestones since we opened:

2008 Inspired by their experience at KOTO in Vietnam, founders Rebecca (Bec) Scott & Kate Barrelle decide to start their own social enterprise in Australia. 
2010 STREAT opens its first little street food cart on Federation Square in Melbourne. The same day its first nine homeless young people start their Certificate II in Hospitality training.
2011 The GPT Group welcomes a coffee cart to its Melbourne Central shopping centre. The site is a very welcome change from a year of working outdoors in Melbourne’s highly unpredictable weather!
2011 Melbourne Uni welcomes a food and coffee cart to its campus. We also celebrate serving our first 100,000 customers.
2012 Our first cookbook is released.
2012 STREAT pioneers one of the first equity investments in an Australian social enterprise, undertaking an acquisition of The Social Roasting Company. 
2013 STREAT wins the Social Enterprise of the Year, Business 3000 Award
2013 Geoff Harris purchases Cromwell Manor, an historic property in Collingwood, and gifts the use of the building as training venue for young people for 50 years. The organisation kick-starts a three year process to design and build a bespoke flagship training centre at the Manor, requiring a very large group hug (of over $4m) from philanthropists, granters, corporates, impact investors and the general public.
2014 STREAT coffee wins the Gold Medal at the Golden Bean Awards for its amazing Decaf coffee. 
2014 STREAT receives a 50th Anniversary Commemorative Grant from the Ian Potter Foundation.
2014 We win Most Innovative Social Enterprise and the national Social Enterprise Awards.
2015 We win the Social Investment Award and the national Social Enterprise Awards.
2016 Our flagship Cromwell Manor site opens! Within a year we’ve tripled our earned revenue and tripled the number of young people we could help each year. 
2016 CEO, Rebecca Scott receives the Victorian Local Hero Award (Australia Day Awards) and the Australian Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Ernst and Young.
2017 STREAT works with a team of Melbourne Uni student interns to undertake a full environmental impact analysis of all aspects of the organisation’s operations and creates its first Planet Plan which includes a 10 year roadmap of environmental initiatives.
2018 STREAT wins the Workplace Giving Excellence Awards with SEEK for the Most Innovative Charity & Employer Partnership. 
2019 CEO Rebecca Scott wins Order of Australia Medal, Australia Day Awards
2019 STREAT reaches 86% self-funded through its business portfolio. STREAT declares a Climate Emergency and releases its second Planet Plan (it had achieved most of its previous 10-year environmental goals within three years).
2019 STREAT wins the Australian Human Rights Award – Business Award. 
2020 We develop a special edition 10 year cookbook, The Greater Hunger, and get ready to celebrate our 10th birthday, but then the pandemic thwarts our plans (with six lockdowns across the year in Melbourne, we didn’t ever get to celebrate).
2020 STREAT joins forces with other food social enterprises to provide culturally-appropriate food relief to tens of thousands of vulnerable Victorians through the lockdowns. 
2020 STREAT works with peer social enterprises to develop Moving Feast, a collaborative project to build a more fair, regenerative and connected food system for Victoria.
2021 We expand our youth training programs beyond hospitality to horticulture and welcome our first young people to train across urban farms run by our partner social enterprises.