What is Crêpes for Change?
Crêpes for Change is Australia's first not-for-profit food truck! By selling delicious Crêpes we are able to generate crucial funds to support young people experiencing homelessness. We also provide education and employment opportunities for the young people we work with!
After celebrating our fourth birthday the Crêpes for Change food truck broke down, which means we aren't able to continue business! This is a problem as it means that we aren't able to support the thousands of young people experiencing homelessness in Australia.
Since Crêpes for Change's inception we have generated over $420,000 in revenue! We have invested every single one of these dollars into providing support for young people experiencing homelessness.
We are aiming to raise $15,000 through our crowdfunding campaign to purchase a new food truck, allowing us to get back out on the roads and doing what we do best!
Who are Levi Fernandez, Tenille Gilbert and Dan Poole?
We are the co-founders of Crêpes for Change and our parent company Society Melbourne. We are all strong believers in using the power of business to create social change and in giving the community the opportunity to be involved through everyday engagement.
Dan was named the 2018 Young Victorian of The Year for his dedicated contribution to starting up Crêpes for Change, he is currently a lawyer at Hall & Willcox.
Tenille has a background in community development and has developed a keen interest in social enterprise as a platform for local change both through her work at Crêpes for Change and at The Social Studio in Collingwood.
Levi is a very happy Father to his Dog Ubu! Outside of this Levi has a deep passion for gender equality and disability rights, these areas of interest motivated Levi to develop Society Melbourne. Levi was previously with YGAP as their Partnerships Manager as well as a support worker for a young man with Autism.
Why should you support Crêpes for Change?
Every year, our Crepes for Change van generates $100,000 in revenue from catering events around Melbourne; food truck parks, corporate functions and private events. There isn't a corner of Melbourne that our van hasn't seen.
100% of the profits from the van flow directly to our training program, which creates employment and education pathways for young people experiencing homelessness.
We provide training opportunities in hospitality that help young people to gain the industry and social skills necessary to gain and maintain employment in a continuously booming and thriving workforce.
After graduating from our program, 100% of our trainees have gone on to find further employment or have chosen to enrol in further education.
The Crepes for Change van directly funds and enables this.
Without it, we'd be stuffed.
By supporting our campaign, you're making sure that our trusty crepes van can get back out on the road, directly creating opportunities for young people and helping them to break out of the homelessness cycle.
Project Partners
Launch Housing
Melbourne City Mission
Barr Family Foundation
Nightingale Housing
ANZ
ING
Inner North Community Foundation
Community Sector Banking
Use of Funds
The funds raised through Crêpes for Change's crowdfunding campaign will be used to make vital repairs to our exisiting food truck and purchase a towing vehicle. These are essential to keep Crêpes for Change in operation and generating profits to support young people experiencing homelessness, as we have been doing for the last four years.
Ultimate Goal
Crêpes for Change's ultimate goal, in collaboration with its sister social enterprises, is to alleviate youth homelessness in Melbourne. We know that this is a very complex issue, which is why we ensure we maximise an individual's ability to escape the homelessness cycle by providing pathways to education, employment, confidence, community and housing. Our dream is that Crêpes for Change will be run by the young people who have graduated from our Training Program and that the broader community will recognise the incredible potential of this group.
Future Plans
Crêpes for Change will continue to operate as a profitable venture upon completion of the food truck upgrades whilst increasing our presence at events at schools and universities. The Crêpe food truck is not only a great fundraiser but also a great awareness raiser. The Crêpes for Change Van will aim to raise $100,000 per year to support up to 20 young people through our training program.
Crêpes for Change, as well as our parent company Society Melbourne, will continue to partner with organisations such as universities and corporations to provide our services directly to community members who want to be a part of creating social change everyday. We will continue to learn from industry experts and adapt our impact activities to support as many young people as we can to create their own pathways out of homeless and into a thriving future.