All Solutions

Taste Food Tours

The Problem

All projects of The Benevolent Society are designed to give something back to the local community, which is why the food tours are set up as a social enterprise. The tours help to explore the cultural diversity of South Western Sydney, also giving a positive image to the suburbs that often receive negative media attention. The tours focus on the generosity of businesses and the cultural bonding. Locals are trained as tour guides thus creating training and employment opportunities and small local businesses are promoted to sell their wares. All net profits from the tours are re-invested in this community project. The Taste Food Tours thus impact on the socio-economic development in the area through a unique business model that helps to build pride in the community as people from other areas are attracted to visit and shop and learn more about different cultures.

The Solution

Taste food tours are a social enterprise project of The Benevolent Society.They are part of a social initiative in Bankstown under the Growing Communities Together project.Taste is a suite of activities designed to showcase the very best of South West Sydney’s amazing multicultural food traditions. The Benevolent Society is using the love of food to bring people together and bridge the social divide. Paticipants from all over the state and beyond love to come to these walking tours and experience the various cultures and learn about the residents and their way of life. The walking tours are day time tours held on most Saturdays. These are themed to project the cultural speciality of each suburb. People can choose from Middle Eastern, Asian, South American, Bangladeshi or European flavours or decide to come to a World fare that is a mix and match of some exciting flavours from around the world. What is unique about the tours is the hospitality and warmth of the locals. The tours are led by local guides who share their own insights about food and the specialities from their culture. Tour participants visit food businesses, café's, spice shops, green grocers and speciality stores. Starting off with the much needed coffee with some local snacks, the day promises to be a gastronomic indulgence of tasting and sampling. Every tour has a sit-down lunch and finishes off with some mouthwatering desserts.The local guides show guests the best places to eat, shop for ingredients and learn all about different food cultures and traditions. People on the tours have the opportunity to not only taste a range of specialities in store, but can also take part in a ‘master class’, and get lots of samples to take home. From walking tours to recipes to cooking classes and cookbooks, there’s something for everyone. Tours are also organised for private groups and tailored to include team building elements.