A borrowed restaurant   +   trainee wait staff   +   mentors   +   our own Scarf chef   

+   various knitted bits   +   hungry, big-hearted customers   =   Scarf!

At Scarf, we get people into jobs while adding flavour and heart to the hospitality industry. We provide hands-on training, mentoring and employment to young people who may not otherwise  have the opportunity.

Scarf trainees get the chance to serve you, our restaurant guests, a delicious two-course menu cooked by our talented chef Ricky Holt. During these dinners, which happen on Mondays, trainees are guided by their mentors (clever and kind hospitality professionals). While we can’t promise that there will be no drips of wine or a perfect reciting of the menu, we can promise a unique, heartening, woolly and totally tasty evening. Remember that as a diner at Scarf, you are an integral part of the training process.

We borrow restaurants when they would normally be closed in order to run Scarf dinners. We would love you to join us for a unique dining experience. See the ‘Dinners’ tab to find out where we’ll be next!

Follow us on Twitter or Facebook, or sign up to our mailing list to make sure you hear the latest news about Scarf Monday Night Dinners! If you want a sneak peek at how things work at Scarf, see our recent photo blog.

We are now recruiting trainees to take part in Winter Scarf. See the Training tab for details. 

Our Mission: To provide marginalised youth with hospitality knowledge, skills and experience in an encouraging space where individuality is seen as an asset. To foster social and professional networks so that these young people have the confidence and connections to get the job they want.

What’s in a name… A scarf is an article of apparel that’s warm and comforting, friendly and flexible, secure and reliable. It can be crafted, knitted, woven or printed. It can be reassuringly modest or outrageously extrovert. It can be an expression of one’s personality or culture, or a show of support for a team or cause.

In 1950s America, people used to use the expression “scarf it down” at the dinner table, which means to eat voraciously, especially when time is of the essence.

What We Do

Hospitality training and mentoring

Scarf’s 10-week hands-on hospitality training and mentoring programs make relevant training available to marginalised young people, allowing them to build skills, confidence, and social networks, as well as streamlining their path to employment in the hospitality industry.

We invite young people who face barriers to fair training and employment opportunities to be front-of-house trainees in our program. We work with new migrants, refugees, asylum seekers, people with disabilities and Australian youth who are disengaged from education. Trainees are paid a wage for their work at Scarf.

Our mentors are people who currently work in the hospitality industry. The mentor’s role is to provide relevant, up-to-date knowledge about the industry while the trainee builds their skill base. The mentors support the trainees during the dinner service and provide a connection into the hospitality industry, which is often the key to finding employment.

Our 10-week programs see us running afternoon training sessions (wine education, formal service practices, cocktail training, beer education, coffee making and more), which are followed by a dinner service. During our Monday Night Dinners, Scarf trainees get hands-on experience in a real restaurant environment whilst being guided by their mentors.

We work with each trainee on an individual basis, to help them find the style of dining that suits them, and then assist them in finding relevant, meaningful employment.

“Everyone has the right to work, to free choice of employment, to just and favourable conditions of work and to protection against unemployment.” – Article 23 Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Scarf Dinners

Scarf Monday Night Dinners form part of our 10-week hospitality training and mentoring programs. We also hold occasional pop-up dinners and special events, which provide employment and networking opportunities for Scarf trainees.

We borrow restaurants from generous, like-minded people who allow us to use their venues outside their normal trading hours.

We offer a two-course set menu for $35 per person, which is cooked by the wonderful Ricky Holt. We provide a high quality dining experience to our customers, which our trainees and mentors are proud to be part of. Dining at Scarf is a unique experience. As a Scarf customer, you’re integral to our model of training – you are the catalyst for the trainee to practice their skills and increase their confidence. We invite you to give feedback when you’ve finished your meal, which allows the trainee to get instant feedback and helps them to set their own goals throughout the program.

Volunteering

We are now recruiting volunteer mentors for Winter Scarf, which will run each Monday from June 17 until August 19. The volunteer position description is on Ethical Jobs here. For more information on the mentoring opportunities available, please email Jess –  jess@scarfcommunity.org

If you’d like to get involved with Scarf as a volunteer, the first thing you should do is come for dinner! See us in action and decide if our organisation is one that you’d like to lend your skills to. Remember, as a customer you play a very important role in the training process. You’ll find details on booking in to dinner on the ‘Dinners’ page.

We rely on many wonderful people who volunteer their time and skills in order to make our programs work.

If you currently work in hospitality and would like to become involved with Scarf, we’d love to welcome you to the family! You might like to mentor during our program or run a training session. Or, if you’re a restaurant owner, maybe you want to lend us your restaurant! For more information on the opportunities available, please get in touch with Jess – jess@scarfcommunity.org

If you are interested in volunteering with Scarf, and have skills in the area of fundraising, graphic design, photography, video-making, writing, knitting, or anything of that sort, or if you have any media or sponsorship enquiries, please get in touch with Hannah – hannah@scarfcommunity.org

Meet some Scarf participants!

Nyaguich – 2012 Winter Scarf trainee

What did you like about Scarf?

I like Scarf because I learn more about different things.

What did you learn during the program?

I learn to serve the customers, coffee making and wine training.

Did you feel ready to get a job after you completed the program?

Yes I feel ready to get a job because I gained more confidence and I enjoyed my time at Scarf.

What would you say to a friend who was considering doing some training at Scarf?

I would say to friend if you really want to get more experience go to Scarf Community.

 

Mark – 2012 Winter Scarf mentor

Where do you work?

Cumulus Inc. I started there two and a half years ago as a waiter, now I’m also one of the wine buyers.

What do you think the trainees get out of the program?

I think the trainees in the program come out a lot richer for the experience gained from Scarf and have a much stronger leg to push off from to leap into the world of hospitality. Nothing is hidden from them and they are shown that it is hard work but the rewards are grand.

What’s the best thing about being a mentor at Scarf?

In the last couple of weeks when the trainees take things into their own hands and work hard, fast and still have a laugh. And the heartfelt thanks you get from them at the end of it all… you see it in their eyes.

Would you recommend being a mentor to other hospitality professionals?

Yes. We all started out from stage one and worked to where we are now and it is a great feeling to help young people come out of their shell and show their personality. Going through what seems easy to me, and taking the time and patience to teach some one who does not have those skills is richly rewarding.

 

Team Scarf

Robyn Gould - Restaurant Manager

Robyn caught the hospitality bug many years ago, while working her way through university.  Eventually the passion for hospitality overtook academia, and she opened her own place – Café Nova on Brunswick St.  After years of weddings, parties, nightclubs and bars (not all necessarily her own) she returned to university to pursue a growing interest in social justice.  Joining the team in February 2013, Scarf provides the ideal way to combine these two passions. As Restaurant Manager, Robyn seeks to maximise the learning experiences of the trainees, while ensuring the diners enjoy their Scarf experience.

Ricky Holt - Chef

Ricky has been shopping at the Victoria market since before some of you were born. A recent trip to Barcelona and ‘La Boqueria’ market only reinforced that great food and inspiration come from wonderful seasonal produce, especially when displayed as a visual feast. You may remember Ricky from the Rathdowne Street Food Store, but these days he bares his wares online as Ricky Holt Catering, where his services go beyond just catering… ‘Hospitality Trouble Shooter’, anyone?! Ricky has been cooking at Scarf since the Winter of 2011, and he brings much to the Scarf table – specifically fresh, seasonal and simply good food. And as a seasoned hospitality player, he is a true believer in the importance of relevant staff training.

Jess Moran - General Manager 

Jess is a School for Social Entrepreneurs fellow (2010) with a Diploma of Youth Work. After three years in the social work field, this year she’s getting stuck into a bachelor of Human Services (Masters Social Work) as she is passionate about creating opportunities to re-engage young people in the workforce and the wider community. Before the social justice bug bit, Jess was a front-of-house superstar, working at many well-regarded restaurants in Melbourne and on her home turf – the Mornington Peninsula. She also has a passion for wine, and in 2009 undertook a wine course where she made a few dozen bottles of Pinot Noir. They weren’t bad! Jess co-founded Scarf in 2010, and her combination of hospitality and social work experience makes her ideally placed to manage the Scarf team.

Hannah Colman - Marketing and Communications

Hannah is a Swinburne Multimedia (Media Studies) graduate, freelance writer and lover of Worlds. She has been working in restaurants for almost ten years because she loves food and enjoys the social side of hospitality. After bits and pieces of volunteering (including editing *bespoken, a community newspaper dedicated to providing a voice to marginalised members of the community), Hannah co-founded Scarf in 2010. Hannah now looks after Scarf’s marketing and communications and is particularly interested in fostering the Scarf community – dinner guests, sponsors, knitters and the like. She also spends a bit of time gently reminding people that Scarf is not an acronym. (In our case, it’s just a warm, comforting show of support and an expression of culture.)

Supporters

Scarf exists with support from many people, organisations and businesses. Our supporters include:

    

    

    

   

     

     

 

Scarf’s Board of Directors

Noel Batrouney

Noel was appointed a director of Scarf in April 2011. Noel holds degrees in law and economics and is a member of CPA Australia. He is a partner with Hall & Wilcox lawyers, and practises mainly in commercial dispute resolution.

Noel is a volunteer tutor with AMES and is interested in assisting refugees to fully engage in the community.

Jana Favero

Jana is the Communications Manager and the Community Team Leader at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (ASRC).  In these roles, Jana is responsible for social marketing, communication and advocacy activities as well as overseeing the delivery of the eight community engagement programs.

Jana has extensive experience working in the private and not-for-profit sector in leadership and marketing roles in Melbourne and London. Jana transitioned from the private to the not-for-profit sector by undertaking a management role in Mongolia on an income generation project for three years.  Jana has also worked in India developing social marketing strategies for increasing the effectiveness and acceptance of women as political leaders.

Jana also has a keen interest in the development of future leaders and works as a tutor and mentor to students at The School for Social Entrepreneurs.

Jess Moran

See profile above!

Sheelagh Purdon

Sheelagh brings to the Scarf board extensive experience in assisting disadvantaged job seekers to enter the workforce. In particular she has worked with asylum seekers, refugees and people with disabilities. She has also worked with employers to understand their needs and develop approaches to equip them to recruit and successfully employ disadvantaged people.

Sheelagh has substantial experience in management development and work place change and has assisted many organisations to focus and fine-tune their operations to meet changing environments.

Recently, Sheelagh moved from her role working in Employment at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre (which she held for five years) to begin her current role as the Community Speaker Coordinator at the ASRC.

Kellie Watson

Appointed as a Scarf director in May 2011, Kellie is currently employed as Production Manager at FareShare. She has broad experience within the hospitality industry in both hands-on and management roles, including the chef manager at Libby Reid Catering.

Kellie strongly believes in the ability of grassroots organisations to positively change equity and access to employment. Kellie can be called upon to man the Scarf “back of house” in emergencies.

What’s On?

Scarf Pop-Up Dinners

Monday 27th May & Monday 3rd June at Two Birds One Stone 

We will be running two pop-up Scarf Dinners in the lead up to our Winter Scarf season. These pop-up dinners will be happening at Two Birds One Stone, 12 Claremont St, South Yarra on Monday 27th May and Monday 3rd June. As usual, we are serving a two course set menu for $35 per person, cooked by Ricky Holt. As well as the two course menu, we also offer dessert, cheese and a fabulous wine list.

Bookings are essential! Send an email to bookings@scarfcommunity.org to book your table. Please specify the following: the date you’d like to book in, number of guests, a contact phone number, a preferred time to come in (6.30, 7.00, 7.30 or 8.00pm) and any dietary requirements.

These dinners will be staffed by trainees and mentors who have participated in past Scarf programs. Working at these events will provide our trainees with an employment opportunity, as well as allowing them to further increase their hospitality networks by working in a new restaurant with a different group of mentors.

Winter Scarf

Our next season of Monday Night Dinners is starting on Monday 17th June. Details will be announced in good time! This season will see a brand new bunch of trainees and mentors staffing the dinners.

To get the latest updates on venues and booking details, follow us on Twitter, Facebook or sign up to our mailing list.

Autumn Scarf Dinners

We recently finished our Autumn Scarf season, during which we ran dinners at Two by Two in Northcote and Three Bags Full in Abbotsford. A big thanks must go to both of these lovely restaurants for hosting us. Be sure to visit them again!

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  The best way to stay in the loop about the Scarf Dinners is to sign up to our mailing list. We promise no spam (in your inbox or on our menu!)

Scarf Dinners Gift Certificates

We are now selling Scarf Dinners gift certificates, which can be used at any Scarf Dinner during 2013*. You can purchase one from our &Able online shop. Gift certificates are a pretty amazing gift because not only does the recipient get to enjoy the culinary delights of a Scarf dinner, they are also the catalyst for Scarf trainees to practise their skills and increase their confidence. Gift certificates are available for $50 (great for one person to enjoy a two-course set menu, a drink and dessert/cheese) and $100 (great for two people).

We have chosen &Able to host our online shop for good reason. &Able uses a micro loan fund to make loans through Kiva, a non-profit that provides small business loans to people in need. This means that each purchase you make also assists people to start a small business and get themselves out of poverty. More information on micro lending is here.

* We plan to run a Winter and a Spring season (Monday Night Dinners) and a bunch of special pop-up dining events, so there will be plenty of Scarf Dinners to get along to in 2013. Dates and venues will be announced in due course.

Food at Scarf

At the helm in the Scarf kitchen is Ricky Holt, who for twenty years ran the Rathdowne Street Food Store. Ricky’s approach to food is that seasonal, local and fresh is always best.

Here’s a sample two-course ($35 per head) menu from 2012:

Scarf Dinner

Sharing platter – 

Marinated olives

Smoked tomato, smoked tofu and date paste

Chorizo and prawn bomba, preserved lemon mayonnaise

Salmon ceviche, cucumber, lime and basil pesto

Duck rillettes, quince glaze

Main 

Slow braised Spring lamb with radicchio, peas, balsamic and baked polenta

Asparagus and leek risotto with hazelnuts and goat’s cheese

Roasted chicken with green olives, preserved lemon, seasoned butter and sweet potato mash

 

Please note that Scarf is fully licensed – no BYO! We have a fabulous drinks list available on the night, courtesy of red + white and Mezzanine wine distribution, Little Creatures, The West Winds gin and Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs Co.

Restaurants

Restaurants we have operated from:

Pilot Program 2010 – Mama Ganoush and New York Tomato

Autumn Scarf 2011 – New York Tomato and Bistro Flor

Winter Scarf 2011 – Rumi and Mixed Business

Spring Scarf 2011 – Easy Tiger and Three Bags Full

Early 2012 Pop-Up Dinners – Union Dining

Winter Scarf 2012 – Libertine and Jorg

Spring 2012 Pop-Up Dinners – Hell of the North and The National Hotel

Summer 2013 Pop-Up Dinner - Union Dining

Autumn Scarf 2013 – Two by Two and Three Bags Full

We literally could not run our programs if it were not for the generosity of the owners of these restaurants. We strongly encourage you to go and visit them outside of your Scarf experience!

 

 

We are currently recruiting young people (18-28 years old) to be trainees in our Winter Scarf program, which will run on Mondays from 17th June – 19th August. Trainees are paid for their work at Scarf.

Current recruitment information for Winter Scarf can be found here.

Referrals for Winter Scarf are open from NOW until Friday 31st May. If you work with a young person who you think would be a good fit for Scarf, or if you are a young person interested in participating in the Scarf program, please email a resume to Jess – jess@scarfcommunity.org or call her on 0488 777 527 for more information.

If you would like to receive information about trainee recruitment for future Scarf programs, sign up here. 

Scarf was started by a group of young hospitality professionals. Most of our skills were learned on the job.

In the hospitality industry, learning on the job is an integral part of the training process, which is why our programs have such a strong hands-on focus.

We believe that the most effective learning takes place in the middle of a busy service – when you’re about to take a customer’s order, the phone is ringing, there are coffees that need to be made, and there is a bell ringing in the kitchen, meaning that hungry customers are waiting for their food! So, what do you do first?! At Scarf we help our trainees figure it out!

For more information on what Scarf offers, check out our “Meet a program” profile on the Victorian Youth Mentoring Alliance website.

Our unique program provides a safe space for our trainees to learn and practice their skills – with a mentor always close at hand to guide them and answer any questions. Our Monday Night Dinner customers are a very important part of the training process, and we strive to provide a quality dining experience for them. Without customers, Scarf trainees wouldn’t get the chance to practise their newly learned skills in a fast-paced environment that replicates the industry.

All our trainees are individuals with different skill levels and different needs. We realise that not all of our trainees will want to work in a formal service environment once they have completed a Scarf program. Our aim is to provide a safe learning space and a positive workplace environment. We aim to foster relationships between trainees and mentors, so that our trainees have the opportunities and connections to get the job they want, in the area of hospitality which is right for them.

Once the Scarf trainees figure out which area of hospitality is most relevant to their personality and skill level, we assist them in finding the right job for them.

The Scarf hospitality training program includes trainee positions for:

Front of House (wait staff)

-       introduction to formal service

-       wine training (4 week wine course with Jenny Polack)

-       coffee training (at the Di Bella Roasting Warehouse)

-       resume writing and interview practice

-       bar training – basic spirits

-       cocktail training at Cookie

-       beer and cider comparative tastings at Little Creatures Dining Hall

-       actual hands-on experience (serving customers)

Scarf front-of-house trainees gain skills and connections to assist them in finding meaningful employment in the hospitality industry.

Beer Training at Little Creatures Dining Hall

Wine training with Jenny ‘The Wine Whitch’ Polack