Restaurateurs have a long history of catering to the wealthy, but one local café has decided to reverse the trend and offer an alternative menu for struggling Canberrans.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The budget menu for low income earners is already in operation at G's Market Café, which has been open for little more than a week in the Florey shops.
With an extensive background in equity and social justice, owner Gina Casey said it felt only natural to incorporate a charitable element into her latest venture.
If customers present a Centrelink or fulltime student card, they can get meals such as soup and a roll for the discounted price of $5. It's less than half the cost of the normal $12 meal, which features gourmet soup, a ciabatta roll, cultured butter and Murray River salt flakes.
Sticking to her belief that food is medicine, Ms Casey said the modest meals would contain as many vegetables as economically possible.
"That means that you get fed for the day," she said.
"If you can get one wholesome meal a day, that will keep you going. Five dollars means that you get a really big roll and a big bowl of soup, and that will keep people from malnutrition."
Ms Casey's low budget menu coincides with a number of reports on rising food costs, including Anglicare Australia's "When there's not enough to eat", issued earlier this week.
Amongst its findings, the report found that one in three Australian adults regularly went for an entire day without eating, while children in 7 per cent of households did not eat for a whole day either weekly or some weeks.
The Cost of Living Report issued by the ACT Council of Social Service today also outlined a steady increase in the price of food and non-alcoholic beverages in Canberra.
Since 2007, costs have increased by 14.5 per cent, with fruit and vegetable prices up 4.3 per cent over the period.
"While food is a large expenditure item for individuals and families, it is also an area in which spending will be cut if money is tight," the report stated.
Ms Casey said her charitable café was still in its early stages, with more items to be added to the budget menu as the business grows.
She said she wasn't alone in her benevolent attitude, as the push to include a community element in everyday operations grew around the capital.
"This is a real movement," she said,
"Australians are starting to get savvy about what big businesses do."
