Our History

Lentil As Anything was created from a dream Shanaka Fernando had for his local community in St. Kilda around twenty years ago.

In the year 2000, Shanaka set up the first Lentil As Anything with the support of the community in St. Kilda. A wild idea at the time and one of Australia’s first modern social enterprises, it was a restaurant that provided food to anyone who dropped in. In order to keep the project viable, Lentil As Anything adopted a contribution model where patrons were encouraged to donate what they could either through a gift of labour, skills or simply to “pay as you feel”, thus creating an effective tool for promoting social cohesion and inclusion.

Lentil As Anything helped create a rare space for our community to come together as one to share a meal, create and collaborate, social stigma and disregarding any existing economic and social barriers.

The values that Lentil As Anything stands for are those deeply rooted in a healthy human community. These values are now cemented into the social fabric of Melbourne and Sydney with four Pay-As-You-Feel restaurants in St. Kilda, Abbotsford and Thornbury in Melbourne, and Newtown in Sydney. The Pay-As-You-Feel movement created by Lentil As Anything has influenced numerous organisations and communities that subscribe to a similar ethos in Asia, Europe and the Americas.

In 2007 Shanaka was awarded Australia’s Local Hero/Social Challenger at Australian of the Year Awards. He lives in Melbourne with his wife and four children.