Last week, Bruce Mitchell and I took 80 BEX2030 (Social Business: Principles and Practices) students on a field trip to Queen Victoria Market — and it was one of the best teaching days I've had in a long time.
The trip was organised by the wonderful Ishani Chattopadhyay, CEO of Social Enterprise Network Victoria, and hosted by Llawela Forrest, General Manager of the Purpose Precinct. What an afternoon.
It started with the land itself — and a history that stopped our students in their tracks. Queen Victoria Market is built on the site of the Old Melbourne Cemetery, once divided by religious denomination and race. Thousands of bodies remain buried beneath the market's open-air car park and surrounding sheds. For students studying social business, there's no more powerful place to begin a conversation about whose stories get told — and whose get paved over.
From there, students saw firsthand what STREAT does — and it's extraordinary. Since 2010, STREAT has provided support and training to more than 3,000 young people facing barriers. The Purpose Precinct is one of their projects — a marketplace focused on Victorian products with purpose that create social, environmental and cultural good. Products that support First Nations peoples, migrants and people of colour. Products that support people facing barriers to employment or experiencing social insecurity. Products that are circular, waste-saving, and good for the planet. Seeing a social enterprise model thriving right in front of them? That's the moment it clicks.
We also learned about two brilliant initiatives tackling food waste and food insecurity.
The Melbourne Food Rescue Network — a partnership between the City of Melbourne, the Victorian Government, STREAT, SecondBite and local food relief providers — is the city's first dedicated food rescue hub. Located under Shed A, fruit and vegetable traders donate surplus fresh produce. STREAT collects, sorts and grades the food, and SecondBite transports it to local food relief providers. First of its kind in Melbourne.
Then there's the Moving Feast Kitchen — an incubation space diverting overripe and unsold produce from stallholders and transforming it into long-shelf-life products sold through the Moving Feast Pantry. Genuinely clever, genuinely circular.
This is what social business looks like when it's not theoretical. You can't fabricate that kind of learning experience.
If you haven't been to Queen Victoria Market lately, take the road less travelled and visit the Purpose Precinct — F Shed, Queen Victoria Market, Peel Street, Melbourne. You won't regret it.
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