"You eat one and you treat one": Feeding a future for survivors of domestic abuse

The thing about domestic violence, for many of us it just seems like too big a problem, too hard for us to do anything meaningful about: but one company is setting out to change all that.

is a catering company making a difference to the victims of family violence by providing them with something we often take for granted - a little bit of luxury.

Lisa McAdams is one such survivor who left her abusive partner after 11 years together.

"He was physically violent but the main component with him was the psychological abuse," she says.

"From someone who was quite smart and together he literally took my brain apart piece by piece until basic functioning was difficult.

“I could get confused thinking about cleaning my teeth.”
Salad
Source: The Feed
“When I left it was the sixth time I’ve left when I went to the shelter and I looked at the crisis worket and said 'seriously, who takes six times?' and the crisis worker said 'well, the average is seven'.”

Lisa went to the refuge with nothing, leaving in such a rush that she didn't even have time to take her toiletries with her.

“When you’re in a refuge with nothing, your desire for nice things doesn’t disappear," she says.

“I find it hard to imagine how it would feel to get a Two Good lunch.

“It’s like someone saying you matter and if you’ve forgotten you matter it’s hard to care about yourself."

Rob Caslick is the co-founder of Two Good after have success with a soup kitchen and wanting to expand the model to a buy one, give one strategy.

"The Two Good model is quite simple," he says. 

"A customer orders one of our salads or soups which are made from recipes from Australia’s top chefs.
Lisa
Source: The Feed
"They get picked up by our partners Deliveroo who will deliver it direct to your office for lunch.

"What’s different is that for every lunch jar you purchase we’re able to give the same lunch jar for a domestic violence refuge or to a soup kitchen.

"Basically you eat one and you treat one."

Rob says they have about 200 lunches going out each week to about eight refuges and their two soup kitchens.

"I don’t think I would ever want to be a chef in a regular kitchen," says head chef Angie Sceats.

“I want to help people change their lives through food. Not because I want to serve cheffy things.

“It’s really great to be here with all the women in the kitchen and to give them the opportunity I suppose to get back there own self worth.

"We get various recipes which are seasonal from celebrity chefs and we adapt them.

“We’ve just brought on a new recipe from Maggie Beer and so far people have been really keen on that one."
Good
Source: The Feed
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3 min read
Published 24 November 2016 5:30pm
Updated 24 November 2016 7:30pm


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