All Things Equal: a café where inclusion comes first

All Things Equal and GingerSnap have returned to West Melbourne with their second pop-up café, now operating five days a week and offering six trainees with disabilities the chance to build real-world hospitality skills in a live café environment.

Located at GingerSnap on Adderley St, the café is built around a simple but important idea: inclusive employment should be the norm, not the exception. Trainees are paid hospitality award wages while gaining front- and back-of-house experience designed to build confidence, skills and long-term career pathways.

All Things Equal, a successful social enterprise with its flagship café in Balaclava, runs an inclusive hospitality employment pathway program supporting people with disability through training, award-wage employment, and pathways into open employment and long-term careers in hospitality.

The current West Melbourne pop-up café is hosted in collaboration with GingerSnap Patisserie, founded by siblings Jess Colgan and Brett Duncan. The café has become a key platform for that mission, blending quality food with purposeful employment.

Brett, a qualified pastry chef who was born profoundly deaf, helps shape the menu with creativity and precision, while chief executive Jess leads the organisation’s broader vision for inclusive, award-wage employment.

With longer opening hours introduced due to strong demand, the expanded program is giving trainees even more opportunity to learn on the job and engage directly with the local community.

The aim of All Things Equal is to provide paid jobs, training and pathways into hospitality for people with disabilities. The GingerSnap pop-up gives trainees practical experience in customer service, food preparation and kitchen operations while serving local residents and workers.

“It’s incredibly rewarding,” café manager Michael Connerley said.

“Seeing how the trainees are on the first day to where they are now, it’s incredible.”

Each trainee arrives with their own strengths and challenges, and with support from trainers they are encouraged to step outside their comfort zones and try new tasks.

“Once they build that confidence, they can do it. Patience and encouragement make all the difference,” Michael told North West City News.

Being in this space with the trainees is extremely fulfilling. They’re genuinely excited when they’re coming to work. They genuinely want to be here, working, learning, getting experience and being given an award wage. It’s exciting to see them grow.

The café has also been warmly embraced by the local community.

“We have regular customers from the local community, which is great,” Michael said. “Ultimately it’s all about getting people through the door and giving them great service.”

The pop-up exposes trainees to all facets of café life, from making coffee to food preparation. As part of the broader training program, each trainee also completes a 10 to 12-week cooking course to build practical kitchen skills and a stronger understanding of how professional kitchens work.

“The coffee machine is the most exciting part, everyone loves learning about coffee, that and serving customers,” Michael said.

The café’s new menu was designed and developed by the All Things Equal chef and hospitality team. The offering includes seasonal salads, toasties, grab-and-go items, baked goods and Veneziano coffee, alongside GingerSnap’s plant-based desserts.

All of it is served with care, pride and purpose.

GingerSnap is located at 114 Adderley St, West Melbourne. Open Tuesdays to Saturday, 8am to 3pm. •