Not just lunch - The Transit Lounge

Meera Atkinson

The Transit Lounge salutes families beyond the family with a portrait of Credo Café.

Unpack the issues...

Think
Read more
Take action
Have your say

Urban Seed, a Melbourne-based Christian project, is a 'partner in mission' with the Collins St Baptist Church in the heart of the city. Based in a nine-storey office building at the back of the church, the organisation is involved in a range of community development initiatives and advocacy work.

This work grows out of a residential Christian community living in the top two floors of the building. There are currently six residents, aged 24-29.

Late each morning, from Tuesday to Friday, the group descends to the basement to start making lunch at Credo Café. The long, low room functions as kitchen and a dining room, with long tables and several smaller ones.

What’s different about Credo Cafe is that you don’t have to pay for your meal. And, unlike most places where a free meal can be had, those who prepare it sit down and share the meal with all comers.

Chris Booth, 25, is a resident at Urban Seed. He says the Credo Café experience varies from day to day.

“Sometimes it will be so busy it’s hard to hear anything because there are so many people. Other days there’ll only be about 20 people and we all just sit around the table,” says Chris.

“We cook the kind of things we’d cook at home: spaghetti bolognaise, lasagne, curry, chow mien. We try to have a vegetarian option and sometimes we’ll have a BBQ outside in the laneway when the weather is good.”

The community meal is open to all, so while Urban Seed residents co-ordinate the cooking and cleaning, ex-residents and patrons volunteer as well.

Being on Collins Street, one of the best addresses in Melbourne, those who are sleeping rough and who live in boarding houses and housing commission flats eat side by side with students, business people and corporate bigwigs who support the Café to contribute to the wellbeing of the community.

“It’s trying to break down the worker–client dynamic,” says Chris. “It’s less like a soup kitchen and more like trying to bring people together around a common need. We all need to eat lunch and someone to eat with. Sometimes people think we’re a charity but we say we’re not a charity; we’re about trying to build a community.”

It is this bringing together of diverse people that makes Credo Café unique. One of the profound aspects of a family is its potential for spiritual growth. We might not like every member of our family and there may be friction at times, even with those we are close to, but we learn about ourselves as we struggle to live with and love those with whom we share time and space.

Chris sees this playing out at Credo Café often. “Some people who come in see people they’ve got a history with on the street. I’ve had people say, ‘If I saw this person on the street I’d want to get out of here or they’d want to get out of here,’ because it wouldn’t be safe. But in Credo it’s different.

“They know that space needs to be safe for everyone. They make sure they get along enough at least to have dinner at the same table. I see that as creating an opportunity for people to try relating to each other in a different way.

“It’s the same with people who work in Collins Street. It’s a chance to eat with people they see sleeping out in the city on their way into work and that creates an opportunity to see people in a different way. We try to develop relationships in Credo.”

The pay-off for Chris and the other Urban Seed residents is the satisfaction of knowing they are giving their time to get to know people in their neighbourhood and grow meaningful community.

As Chris says, “It’s not just lunch".

Unpack the issues...

Think