New charity restaurant
The focus on good food and suicide prevention has produced a new charity restaurant, an Australian first.
The restaurant goes by the simple name of Conversation Bites.
It’s been put together by R U OK and Taste of Melbourne in partnership with Electrolux.
It’s a charity pop up in Yarra Park,
It will be open for just four days, from Thursday November 30 to Sunday December 3.
It’s an initiative that aims to raise funds for suicide prevention and also encourage meaningful conversations, all done while breaking bread with people and enjoying good food.
It’s a critical initiative with eight people taking their own lives per day in Australia.
It brings together celebrity chefs including Dan Hunter, Raymond Capaldi, Sam Pinzone and Geoff Lindsay and they share a common strategy, combining their passion for food and suicide prevention.
The line-up of chefs will produce four dishes.
The Conversation Bites restaurant will be available exclusively at Taste of Melbourne.
They plan to create a sumptuous ‘Conversation Bites’ menu that will offer limited-edition dishes for the R U OK? restaurant to share with loved ones.
The money raised will be targeting growth around these important issues with a percentage of the proceeds from the restaurant going to fund additional R U OK? campaigns.
It will also generate the resources that will allow people to have more life-changing conversations.
R U OK? CEO Brendan Maher sums it up neatly.
“Whether you’re a foodie or not, tough times can sometimes wear us down,” Maher said.
"That’s why R U OK? has teamed up with Taste of Australia, to get people together over food.
"Because a problem shared is a problem halved, and a great place to start is by asking, 'Are you ok?'"
"We are really proud to launch this first charity restaurant at Taste of Melbourne, and hope to replicate the idea across the country."
by Leon Gettler,ovember 23rd 2017
