Open Table

We use surplus food to create wholesome community feasts, bringing together people from all walks of life. Open Table is based on two key ideas — food waste; and meeting the neighbours.We cook nutritious feasts using produce salvaged by hero organisations SecondBite and Foodbank, as well as surplus food from local businesses and community gardens. Increasingly, we are seeing how flawed the food system in Australia is, and this is one small action to make a positive change and have conversations about how to live sustainably.Coming together over a meal is a brilliant opportunity to talk about shared experiences of place, food and culture. We hope to create stronger understanding and appreciation for our diverse community, and also to provide the opportunity to strengthen social skills for everyone wishing to participate more fully in our community.We are adamantly secular and independent, and strive to create inclusive events where people from across the local community are welcome — in particular those who are marginalised from the mainstream. We actively work with community organisations to invite a cross section of the neighbourhood.We are a group of friends who bring our different skills together to address different problems of food wastage, social cohesion and difficulties of marginalised populations in reentering the community.Open Table is a member of Sustainable Melbourne, and the Moreland Food Garden Network.