Social Enterprise Eateries - A Tasty Redistribution of Wealth 


My partner and I love to eat out. You could say it's a hobby of ours. We both love to cook, but equally we enjoy being exposed to new cuisines, flavours and food cultures as often as possible. Given how much time and money we spend on searching for and devouring good food, I questioned whether we could make our money go a little bit further and whether we could do a little good in the process of filling our bellies.

Enter charity and social enterprise eateries! The restaurants, cafes, deli’s, dining experiences and all manner of foodie-related operations dedicated to investing 100% of profits into projects and programmes which create positive change for society and the environment.

This ‘guts for good’ model is taking shape all over the world and I wanted to get in on the action. Cue my ‘philanthropic feeding’ experience. I sought to find out whether a restaurant or cafe set up to ultimately deliver a social good, could also deliver on quality and price too? With my partner along for the ride, would we enjoy these experiences as much as our usual dining experiences?

Our experience began in Australia during a four month backpacking trip. It immediately became my obsession to find a charity or social enterprise foodie spot in each destination we visited. This took is through Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. Now back on home soil in the UK, the food adventure continues.

Throughout our travels I hoped we would find some delicious foods and drinks to try whilst doing a little good. What we found was more than that. We found a new way of eating, a new way of voting with our stomachs, of making a difference through our mouths. Move over 5p donations per pack of biscuits purchased, now our entire meal could make a difference - as foodies we struck glutinous gold.

In the following blogs, I've reviewed the charity and social enterprise cafes and restaurants which I've visited. Hopefully this prompts others to pay them a visit whilst on their travels. I also hope that others become slightly obsessed with philanthropic feeding and this tasty redistribution of wealth. So get your forks to the ready and let the philanthropic feasting begin!

Social enterprise eateries Australia
Social enterprise eateries Cambodia
Social enterprise eateries Indonesia
Social enterprise eateries Thailand
Social enterprise eateries Vietnam

I've also compiled a list of social enterprise restaurants, cafes and dining experiences around the world in Charity Cafes - The Delicious Directory. The directory is always growing! If you know of a charity or social enterprise eatery which can be added to the Delicious Directory please let me know about it.

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