Thérèse Nichols, creative entrepreneur and inspired founder of OnePlate joins Kate & Tabs.

Thérèse Nichols is a creative entrepreneur and the inspired founder of Oneplate.co - an incredible charity bringing together chefs, foodies, cafes and restaurants to support sustainable food projects in Asia and Africa.With a love for food and travel, after an extraordinary trip to Manila in the Philippines and experiences with orphaned children, Thérèse set up OnePlate to support the £143 million orphaned children one plate, one life at a time. It is a moving and amazing story.OnePlate partners with chefs, foodies, cafes and restaurants and creates beautiful recipe books. The proceeds from each sale go directly towards sustainable food projects for children in Asia and Africa. They are great recipes and as a book it is just as comfortable elegantly gracing your coffee table.We talk compassion, leadership and planting dreams and how, for all of us, doing small things with love has the power to make such an immense difference. ❤️Thank you for listening, Tabs and Kate X

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Thérèse Nichols, creative entrepreneur and inspired founder of OnePlate joins Kate & Tabs.

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Tabi:

Welcome to LifeStream, a podcast to inspire and provoke in which we delve into the meaning of success. We chat about development, self-care and journeys with some incredibly inspirational people. We are a mother-daughter duo who have both had very different life experiences. This is my fabulous mum, Kate Tojeiro. She is deep in the world of business, and leadership and cares about how people can make a difference.

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Kate:

And this is my incredible daughter Tabi Tojeiro. She's just about to graduate as an actor and will be stepping into the big unknown and on her own path personally, professionally, whatever that transpires to be.

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In this episode, we're absolutely delighted that Thérèse Nichols is with us. She's a creative entrepreneur with a background in PR, having worked for local and international organisations in the fields of communications, events and television. She's got a great love for food and travel. And in 2015, after a trip to the Philippines, Thérèse set up OnePlate, which is an awesome charity which now operates in 27 countries. We’re going to talk more about that today. And she is an extraordinary force for good. I think it's fair to say. So thank you so much for being with us.

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One of the first questions I wanted to ask you is, after your four-week trip to Manila, which, having spent time myself in Manila, albeit a number of years ago. It's a real juxtaposition, isn't it of difference. Many places are, but I think particularly that it sparked a new path for you in supporting people in Asia and Africa. Can you tell us a bit more about that inspiration?

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Thérèse:

Yes. Well, thank you so much for having me on your podcast. It's such a joy to be here and so lovely to meet you both. So thank you. But yes, the story of OnePlate, it's Manila. I had not planned to go to the Philippines, it wasn't on my travel radar at all, so I suppose the way it began was I can take you back further if you like.

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Tabi:

Yeah, please do! 

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Thérèse: 

The story was interesting because, as you mentioned, my background is in PR and I have worked for a number of organisations worldwide, I had been living in London actually for two years, working in London, and then in 2014, I was at a leadership conference in London. And I'll just never forget the speaker on stage. She was speaking about the 143 million orphans around the world. 

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And I sat there and I was so overwhelmed and struck by that number, 143 million, not 143 thousand, but 143 million. And she just posed one question to the audience. She just said, “How will they know that they're loved?” And there was something about that question that just struck my heart and it was just so heartbreaking and so overwhelming and just something that sat there, but it was nearly too much to think about. So I didn't think about it. I just sort of sat there, but it went into my heart and subconscious. I just thought, “143 million, how will they know that they're loved?” And it brought me to tears. 

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So one year later, there's this foundation in Manila that my brothers are connected with. They had been there and volunteered, and at this particular time, they needed more help with their feeding program. So I thought, I'll go over. I had just started a job in PR. I took a few weeks off, went over and volunteered at this foundation and one year later, I found myself standing there on the streets in Manila and was just completely overwhelmed by what I saw. Just thousands and thousands of children who are living on the streets, and Kate, you have been there so you would have experienced and seen what these children go through.

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Kate:

I think it really is utterly heart-wrenching.

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Thérèse: 

Yeah, so they don't know the exact number, but they say hundreds of thousands of children across the Philippines live on the streets and they're on the streets for many different reasons. Some are orphans. They don't have a family to look after them. Some of them have been abandoned by their own families, which is just heartbreaking. And some have actually run away from home because home is worse than the streets, because their homes are in the slums, and the slums can be quite dangerous.

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Once they get on the streets, they're involved in alcohol, drugs, gangs, trafficking, child prostitution, and then it just becomes this vicious, horrendous cycle. Just seeing what these children go through and how they spend their days day in, and day out, loitering in the streets just to find food to survive that day, I just couldn't believe the amount of children that are going through this struggle. 

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And so it was through that experience, and I think also probably one of the hardest things I saw was a lot of these children are on drugs, and I thought it was because they're involved in crime, but they're on this drug to numb their stomachs from hunger.

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Kate:

Oh my gosh.

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Thérèse: 

Glue - it’s a solvent that they sniff, and it numbs their stomach, so that they don't feel the hunger pangs, and then they become addicted to it, and then it causes all of these other issues. So it's just this vicious cycle. And I mean, what's so sad about it is that it's cheaper for them to buy this glue than it is to buy a bowl of rice. So they just become addicted to it quite easily. Just to see what these children go through in the plight of that was just really, really heart-wrenching.

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But amidst all of that, there are these shining lights, and these organisations and foundations and volunteers, that are doing extraordinary work to care for these children. In this particular foundation that I was volunteering at, every Saturday, they opened up their doors and they provided lunch for the children. They do a feeding program, and at the time, they needed extra help just serving the feed. So I thought, that's something I can do. And so I went along to this particular foundation to help on a Saturday and thought it would be like any feeding program, like a soup kitchen where the children would stand in line with their bowls, and they would get served rice out of these big pots. 

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But what they actually do is, they invite all the children in the morning, and they play games with them and just allow the children to be children for a morning. And then all the children are sent outside and they set up this space, which is not that big. It's just a small area, concrete floor, tin roof. And they set up this space for 500 children, like a dining room. So they set up trestle tables, and they put on tablecloths. Sometimes they'll do table centrepieces and put flowers in the centre of the table, or banana leaves or some sort of Filipino decoration. They set up every place individually, so the children can sit down and eat and play.

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I was in charge of putting the spoons down at each place. So I was going around, putting the spoons down, 500 spoons on one of the long tables. There were only a few volunteers who were helping set up, so we were doing it quite fast. We only had 15 minutes to do it, so I was quickly putting the spoons down, and I put one of the spoons down and it was slightly crooked, and one of the volunteers came over and he straightened it up and I thought, “oh, he must have OCD, this is slightly out”. And he just looked at me and he said, “We need to make it perfect because we want to treat these children like little kings and queens”.

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I was just so touched in that moment because it showed the children their worth and their dignity. And I thought, if the King and Queen walked in this moment, we'd be polishing that silver, making sure everything's perfect. And these children deserve to be treated like little kings and queens, like anybody. And so, it was through that experience that I went out to the kitchen to help with the food preparation, thinking it was just going to be this big line of children with their bowls being served. But what they do in the kitchen is they plate up every single meal like a work of art.

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Kate:

Wow.

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Thérèse: 

So, there's a conga line of volunteers, and it's a simple meal. It was chicken, eggs, chips and rice. But one of the founders, he's at the beginning and he's a bit of a chef. So he was plating up the first plate so beautifully. And then everybody followed his example of how the food was to sit and how it was prepared. So the plate, just the way he was arranging the chicken and the eggs to make it look beautiful, was so lovely. I was in charge of putting the tomato sauce on the egg, the 500 eggs, 500 plates. So I just got the tomato sauce, and I just squeezed the tomato sauce on the egg, and he came over, he's like, “No, no, you don't do it like that. Do it in a heart shape, because we want the children to feel loved.”

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For me, it was in that moment - one of my favourite quotes is to do small things with great love. And, it was just in that moment, when I thought back to that lady in London, when she was talking about the 143 million children, saying, “How will they know that they're loved?” And then in this moment, it seemed so small and so insignificant in the sense of all the children around the world and everything. These children need everything. And here I am doing a heart shape in tomato sauce on an egg. It just seems so small. But that foundation, they wanted it done in a heart shape to show these children that they're loved. And when we came out and served these children their plates, this food that was so beautifully presented on a plate, the children suddenly sat up a bit straighter. They had smiles on their faces. And for me, that's when I realised that the food, they're coming because they're hungry, they need something to eat. But then this food presented beautifully on their plate showing them that it's more than just food to feed their hungry stomachs. It's showing them their dignity. It's showing them that they're loved. Because most of the week they're eating food out of plastic, out of bins, wherever they can find food, and having food served on a plate shows them their dignity.

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And I think there's so much within that, for those children, to show them that they're loved. And when they know that they're loved, there's something so much more that they're given than just food on a plate. So that whole experience of not just feeding the children, but giving them an experience of sharing together around a table was so important for those children. 

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Kate:

Absolutely. And being cared for in a way that they probably hadn't been cared for, sadly, a very, very long time.

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Thérèse: 

Yes. 

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Tabi:

So how would you say that experience has then sparked One Plate to be where it is now?

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Thérèse: 

So from that experience, I was there for four weeks and seeing some of the stories of these children and what they had overcome was so inspiring. This particular feeding program has been going for 25 years now. Every single Saturday, often on Saturday mornings, I wake up and I'm like, “Oh, those heroic volunteers still over there serving food.” 

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But there were a few things that inspired me, Tabi, and one of them I mean, many things that, one of those feeding programs there was when, after we had served the food to the 500 children, there was this boy who was standing in the corner of that room, and he was about 18 or 19 years of age, and he was standing there with a big backpack on and a suit that was probably five times too big for him, and he looked quite shy, and he was just standing there looking. I thought, “Ah I wonder if he's one of the volunteers.” So I went over and I introduced myself and I said, “Are you one of the volunteers?” And he said “No. I used to come here every week for my one meal of the week on a plate. I used to be one of these children.” He had lived on the streets for most of his life. His parents had died and he grew up on the streets amongst all the other street children and every Saturday he would come there for his one meal on a plate. And he said, “Today I've come back to say thank you because I've now finished school and I'm now at university studying engineering.”

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Kate and Tabi:

Wow. 

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Thérèse: 

He’s making a life for himself, and to see some of the stories of these children, of what they've overcome and their stories of resilience and hope was so inspiring.

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And so it was whilst I was there at that foundation in Manila over those four weeks, I started thinking a lot about our food culture in Australia, how we love going out for breakfast and lunch and dinner, drinks and brunch, how we're living in this golden age of the foodie. But I was thinking we shouldn't feel guilty about that because it's such a beautiful part of our culture. It's such a part of our community. It builds. It builds the fabric of our society. It builds relationships, it builds friendship, it builds community and how important our food culture is, how important our hospitality industry is in terms of community. And if we start feeling guilty about that, then it either leads to two things - either people become quite judgmental with everybody else about their choices or judgmental with themselves.

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Kate and Tabi:

Yeah, yeah.

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Thérèse: 

And that can lead to bitterness and resentment. Or people can become quite paralysed and just don't want to think about what's happening anywhere else in the world, because it's easier not to think, which I think is probably most of us, and not do anything about it. So I just think that the whole thing of people feeling guilty doesn't help anyone. It doesn't help themselves or anybody in their communities or the children. So, I just wanted to step outside of that whole story and not even think about it because it's not helpful. 

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And so I was thinking, our hospitality industry is so beautiful. Wouldn't it be amazing to partner with our hospitality industry, celebrate it and elevate it for impact, elevate it to make a difference in a bigger way than perhaps done before? So, that was the thought. I thought why don't we partner with restaurants and cafes and foodies and chefs to make a difference? And, so how it began, that particular foundation that I volunteered with, they had a double storey building, and on the top floor they had just a concrete roof. And I said to them, “You should do a rooftop garden here, this would be fantastic.” And they said, “That has been our dream. We have wanted to do a rooftop garden here for a couple of years because we could grow the fruits and vegetables that we serve on this feeding program, but we just don't have the funding.” I said, “Oh, I could go back to Australia and raise the funds.”

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So basically I went back to Australia and asked a few friends to come on board with me, who are my co-founders, Kat, Regina and Josh. Together we raised $5,000. We sent the $5,000 back. They built this amazing rooftop garden, which is still flourishing today, eight years later. Not enough food for 500 children - the garnishings.

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But what I learned through that experience with this rooftop garden, is more than providing garnishings for the food, it was so therapeutic for the children. 

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These children would start going up to the rooftop garden. They would start watering the plants and planting the plants. They started learning where food came from, many of them didn't even know that a seed could turn into a tomato. For so many of them food has come out of bins and plastic, so they started to learn the process of growing their food. And all of these life skills of patience - that it takes time for a seed to turn into a vegetable. Some of them were given leadership responsibilities of planting and watering and going up there every day and nurturing these plants. It started to show me all of these lessons and the therapeutic side of gardening for these children.

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For this particular foundation their dream was to do a full farm. That's where we thought we could actually start funding these farms for these children, so it not only would provide food for the children, but it would also provide a place of therapy. It would provide a place of nurture and care and where their dreams can start to be cultivated. 

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And so I came back to Australia and together with my three co-founders, we created One Plate. It came from one child, not to be overwhelmed by the millions or hundreds or even ten, but to start with one. And the idea of the plate is that having food on a plate is what actually provides that child dignity. It shows them that they're worthy to have a plate of food and the importance of that plate. And so basically in Australia, we started partnering with restaurants and cafes. They would choose one menu item and each time that menu item is ordered, a dollar is donated to One Plate, 100% of that dollar to fund sustainable food projects for these children.

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Kate:

That’s fantastic, it really is. And I think that you mentioned earlier, sometimes, you know, all of us think, what are we going to do? What can we do? Because the problem seems so big, as you say 143 million orphans, it's huge. But actually one person, one thing at a time. And as you said so beautifully around the fact that, yes, it's about food, but it's also about dignity and soul and purpose. And giving the children a different reason other than that a life that’s just about survival, to eat, to not be violated, so many things that are just about survival. There's no thriving in there at all. It's literally one moment, maybe one hour to the next.

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Whereas this sort of opening up to that flourishing, thriving and seeing things that they've never seen before is just incredible, through what you are doing.

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Thérèse: 

It’s interesting you say that Kate because there was this one little boy, and he was 12 when I met him, and when he was 2, he was based in Manila, his mum died and his dad was in jail for drugs. So he was left on the streets. He had nobody to care for him. At two years of age, he was abandoned, left on the streets and he grew up amongst other street children and they all just looked after each other, but that involved a lot of horrendous things and gangs and all sorts. He went through hell on earth and was in survival mode day in, day out for ten years just searching for food and caught up with everything on the streets. 

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And then he heard about his feeding program. So he started going along every Saturday for his one meal on a plate each week. And when we did the rooftop garden, he just took a liking to it. So he would go up to the rooftop garden every week, and he then got a scholarship to go to school. He started going to school and he got a home, which was amazing. But this rooftop garden ended up becoming his safe space, and it became his place where he started healing because he would go up there every week, to plant, to water. 

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He just started talking to the plants because he didn't feel safe around adults, but around these plants, around these living spaces and creation, he just felt quite safe. And he started to bloom. He started to grow as well. And he was telling me that his dream now is to be a farmer. 

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And for us, that just seems “Oh, yeah, that's great. You've got a dream to be a farmer.” Because we're full of dreams. We have so many dreams. But what we don't understand

is that for these children to have a dream, to even say “I want to be when I grow up” is a massive thing, it’s a huge breakthrough, because these children, as you said, they're in survival mode. They're not thinking about tomorrow. They're not even thinking about tonight. They're thinking about, “How can I get through the next few hours? How can I get my meal?” They're not thinking about tomorrow. So, for them to even think about the future, let alone have a dream of what they want to be in the future, is a huge breakthrough because it means that they're out of survival mode, and they're starting to think about tomorrow. 

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We’ve got the opposite problem. We’re so in the future and thinking about the future that we can't live in the present moment, it's hard for us to live in the day-to-day, but for them to have that dream...for him to say I want to be a farmer was huge. And so that's where we see this is physically planting the seeds, but it's also planting dreams in their hearts of what they want to be, which is part of their healing journey. 

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Tabi:

And ironically enough I was about to ask, fast forwarding to today. I have OnePlate’s book in front of me, Brunch In London. And looking at it, it is one of the most stunning books I think I've ever seen. Everything about it the fonts, the photos, the way all the recipes are written out, everything. 

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Kate:

It’s like you open it and a load of joy just flutters out! It is incredible. 

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Tabi:

And so many incredible world-renowned chefs have got involved with this. We've got Ottolenghi, Jamie Oliver, Angela Hartnett, who are a few of the many, many incredible people within it. How did you come up with who you wanted to get involved with, how did you connect with them? Were there already links there? How did you hand-pick the chefs that you wanted to get involved with this book?

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Thérèse: 

Yes. So to bridge the gap with how, for our listeners, the book happened. Because the whole idea is partnering with restaurants and cafes, I thought it would be a good idea to do a cookbook to celebrate these restaurants and cafes, to raise money for our projects. And brunch is such a thing in Australia, particularly Melbourne.

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So, we partnered with 100 of Melbourne's best cafes. They gave us their favourite brunch recipe, and we created this cookbook called Brunch in Melbourne and launched it in 2020. It became a bestseller and sold out within six weeks. 

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Because of that we were able to fund more sustainable food projects and grow. So because of Brunch in Melbourne and the sale of that cookbook, just so you know, we're all volunteers so 100% of every donation goes straight to the projects. We have amazing angel donors who fund our low administration costs because we're all volunteers. And so Brunch in Melbourne, because it sold well and became a bestseller, we now have 33 projects across the Philippines, Cambodia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, all sustainable food projects and all for children who have either been abandoned, living on the streets - children in great need. 

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So that book launched in 2020, and then in 2022, I was coming to the end of the promotional campaign of that cookbook, and I started thinking we should do another cookbook. I wonder what would be a good city. And I just think London has one of the most amazing food scenes in the world. 

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Kate:

Yeah. 

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Thérèse: 

But, I didn't know about brunch in London. I thought I wondered what brunch in London is like because we have this idea to do a brunch series. I thought I'd just find out. And so our food photographer for Brunch in Melbourne was living in Melbourne at the time, but she's British so she had moved back to London. Georgia Gold, her name is. And so I asked her if she would be interested in being involved in the project to create this cookbook. And she said, yes. She said you need to meet Emily Ezekiel, who is our food stylist, and Emily Ezekiel is one of the best food stylists here. And she's got a heart of gold, so she came on board as the food stylist and we started creating this team. We had an amazing project manager Harriet Webster, and started researching the restaurants, the cafes, the scene here in London. Emily Ezekiel's been on the food scene for nearly 20 years, so she's all over it. 

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And we started putting our list together of the restaurants and the cafes and who would be good, what chefs. It took nearly two years to create this cookbook, Brunch in London. But Emily was key in introducing us to some restaurants and chefs, and then it started to snowball from there. And we were looking at this from what's really alive and hot in the London food scene, from a brunch perspective, from the food scene, but also from an international perspective. So you would see from the cookbook, it's so diverse in the different  places featured in there. 

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Kate:

It is. 

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Thérèse: 

Featured in there are the Ritz and Claridges and The Goring, Honey and Co, Pophams, E5 Bakehouse, and Dishoom. So it's an incredible mix and diverse array of restaurants, hotels, cafes and chefs, everybody. They all selected what they wanted to be in the book, what they wanted as brunch. And so we just let them lead what it is because we were just so curious to find out what brunch in London is like and now this book shows what it is.

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Kate:

Yeah. It's wonderful. It's one of the things I think it’s in the foreword, you say “I always love brunch as it is a leisurely ritual celebrating the luxury of time.” And I suppose that encapsulates a lot of the things that you've talked about - enjoying food, friends, the moment and the whole experience, but then actually how that ties in a very different way, back to what you're doing with the children, giving them time rather than having to constantly be fearful for their safety or their life or whatever it is. But planting dreams, it's nice. It's brilliant. It is.

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Tabi:

On a really small note just because I'm curious, obviously you've done a Brunch in London and a Brunch in Melbourne. Were there any big differences between the brunch scene in London and Melbourne?

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Thérèse: 

Such a good question, Tabi. Yes, there were definitely some differences. The biggest difference is the time that brunch happens in Australia and the time that brunch happens in London. 

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I think brunch in Australia is more on the side of breakfast and is earlier, whereas brunch in London is a bit more erring on the side of lunch and is later. So, I think it is a small difference, but it is quite significant when you're eating a beach brunch in Melbourne, you can easily go out for brunch in Melbourne at 9:00, or 10:00, and that's considered brunch. Whereas in London I feel like brunch doesn't really start till 11:00.

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Tabi:

Yes, it seems a lot later. 

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Thérèse: 

And then that sort of goes into lunch, which is interesting. And that's reflected in the recipes, because there are a lot of recipes in the book that are a bit more you could have for lunch, whereas in Melbourne, Australia, it's more breakfast than it is lunch. So that's the biggest difference. And I think that's probably for a few different reasons. I think part of it is the weather over here, it stays darker in the mornings much longer and so people sleep in longer, Australians get up much earlier than the Brits. 

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Tabi:

Yeah [laughs]

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Thérèse: 

So I think the timings probably was the biggest difference which impacts on what is served for brunch.

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Tabi:

Oh, it's so interesting because I wouldn't have even thought that would have even been a factor, like at the different times of different styles of eating.

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But I guess it is like if we were like, oh, let's go out for brunch, it would be more of an elevenses kind of thing. I guess I never even thought that time would have such a heavy impact on the type of dishes that it is.

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Thérèse: 

It does. Yeah. It does impact on the dishes. It is interesting and it was unexpected. I started to see it as the book was unfolding. 

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Tabi:

Yeah. It's amazing.

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Kate: 

Yeah, incredible. But then, to your point about when people get up, maybe it's the same meal or it's all the same number of hours since you've woken up. But therefore it’s earlier or later. 

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Tabi:

One thing we always talk about is success and different people's definitions of success. Your journey with OnePlate, the books, and all of your projects have seemed as if it's been very hands-on. You were there witnessing things, and that's what sparked where you are now. So do you think throughout that journey, your definition of success has changed? Or if it's just developed and got bigger? Because I can imagine where you are now, at the beginning, you wouldn't have even been able to imagine how many young people you've helped, which is just incredible. So do you feel like throughout the journey, your personal journey and the journey of OnePlate, do you think the definition of success has changed for you?

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Thérèse: 

Yes, I think it has. And I think part of it is, for me, a big part of it is, if we're always working towards the dream and what’s success, I don't think we ever get there because we keep redefining it because when we get there, we change it and we're like now we want this. And we're always dreaming bigger and bigger. I'm definitely a visionary and I'm a big dreamer and I'm a creative, but a big lesson that I learned with Brunch in Melbourne with that cookbook, is that I was so focused on the outcome once the book is published and once we sell the first few thousand books, then that is successful.

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Kate:

Yeah. 

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Thérèse: 

But it's actually what I learned through that process was when we did get to that point, I was like, “Oh no, we don't want to sell 5000 now. We want to sell 10,000.” So the goalposts kept changing. Which I think is important because we need to dream big and we need to keep going above and beyond. But what changed for me was not the endpoint, it's the journey that we're on, enjoying the journey and the journey itself becomes the dream. 

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So if I'm treating the journey as the dream and living it with absolute joy and in hope of the next dream, then that becomes the dream. Otherwise, I think it's always trying to chase something but then when we get there, the goalposts change because the dream becomes bigger. A big lesson that I learned with Brunch in Melbourne was to enjoy and to really, absolutely, completely embrace each moment of the work and of the vision as the dream itself.

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Kate:

Just amazing.

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Tabi:

I love what you just said about the goalposts changing because it's so true. You think you want to get to a certain place and then you get there and you can't be like, "Oh, well, I've succeeded, so I'm going to switch off now.” That's never how it works. It's always you get somewhere and you just keep wanting to improve because I've managed to get here, we've managed to get here. I think it's so lovely to put it into words like that. As you said, the initial goal was to sell 5,000 and then it was to do 10,000. 

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I think it's lovely to see the snowball effect of how the dreams and the passions have been growing and growing and growing just to help as many people as possible. While doing something that you're very clearly passionate about brunch and sharing food with people. It seems like just such a lovely mesh because it's something you, and I'm sure everyone else at OnePlate is so passionate about, that you can help other people and organisations that you also feel so passionate about. I think it's so inspiring because it's such a lovely coming together of two worlds, and neither of them are more important than the other. It's like they're coexisting, which I think is just lovely as well.

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Thérèse: 

And that was a big thing for us because our whole motto is hope, not guilt, and it's all about celebrating our beautiful food culture whilst making a difference. I do see OnePlate as a two-way charity where whilst we're celebrating our food culture, we're raising money to fund these sustainable food projects. These children, they're teaching us so much about love, hope, forgiveness, resilience, life and we'll never be able to give them as much as they have given us in terms of their lessons on life. And so I do see it as this two-way charity of the wisdom that they have to share. 

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But also it is this beautiful, all emerging together through these restaurants and cafes that are featured in the book, it's an amazing opportunity to showcase them and to showcase their restaurants and their cafes, and their chefs, and their dishes. It is a triple win because these restaurants and cafes are getting a great opportunity to showcase, a great PR opportunity for them. Foodies everywhere are getting these golden recipes that they wouldn't normally get from their favourite restaurants and cafes. And then we're able to raise 100% of the profit from the book is going to these projects, that we're able to raise the money. So it is this beautiful, collaborative charity that I think that has evolved. And when I first had the idea for OnePlate, 9 years ago, as part of that idea, cookbooks were never part of it. Brunch wasn't on the agenda. I was going out for brunch, writing ideas and writing in my journal. I wasn't thinking about cookbooks.

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And so for me, that's a really important part of what you were saying before about success, is to not hold onto it tight, to hold it loosely, to allow it to evolve and to let it flow because I think sometimes if we hold on too tight to what we want, I think it's important to have a dream and it's important to have a pathway. But if we hold onto it so tight and if we're hustling and striving, then we can miss the amazing opportunities that are just coming our way that we may not even have thought or dreamt of, but are so much better. So to me, an important part is to hold it loose and to see come what may, what might happen. And that's exactly what happened with the cookbook. With Melbourne, it just evolved. And then when I did Melbourne, I hadn't thought about doing London at that point. It happened afterwards and I was like, “Oh, let's just give London a go” and it evolved into London. That's where I think it's really important to enjoy the journey and embrace the journey and not see it as striving and as the slog and as the hustle. But to just embrace the journey as the dream, and enjoy the process as much as the outcome. Because if it's always the outcome, that moment is only fleeting. It's the journey that goes on and on and on. And if we're not enjoying the journey, if we're not keeping that balance with all the other things in our life, then I think that's where it can lead to burnout. And we get into that hustle-striving culture, which isn’t fulfilling. 

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Kate:

You’re constantly forward, aren't you? Rather than in the moment. I think it's powerful what you say. And also Tabs and I talk quite a lot about invisible threads. Sometimes in life, you think it’s invisible threads making things happen. But I was listening to an artist yesterday and it reminded me what you just said. And he was talking about journaling and writing your ideas down and the fact that he always had. And therefore, when opportunities come up, you see them because you thought about them, or you might not feel that you thought about them, but you sat in a cafe, with a coffee and written an idea or thought. And then when something comes, that actually could be the opportunity that becomes Brunch in London or Melbourne or wherever else in the world, we sort of had those thoughts and as you say, you've planted the seeds, the dream. And then there's that power of having loosely thought about things and what we might want to do. And then I think that's where sometimes the power is because it can come together, even if we’ve only loosely thought about it. If we see an opportunity, we do see it, rather than miss it. 

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Thérèse: 

I completely agree. What you focus on expands. Yeah, I truly love that. I love what you said, Kate about the invisible threads. It's so true because I see that so much with the OnePlate journey, there have been so many invisible threads that don't seem like it all matches. But then, in retrospect, wow, it was all for a reason.

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Kate:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Oh, it's been so amazing speaking with you. Just so many things for us, for our community, for the audience. One question that we ask everybody is what's your wish for society?

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Thérèse: 

For these children to know that they're loved, I really I think love is so, so powerful. And going back to that quote “to do small things with great love is a great thing.” 

If in our lives, each of us, is working on doing small things with great love and loving well, it would change society and so I think love can get thrown around a lot, and there are so many definitions and meanings that people put to love. But love in its purest sense of really loving well, I think, is at the foundation of a good society.

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Kate:

Yeah, I agree, and as you say, it would change things quite quickly, just a bit more love, whether it's for people, you know, people who don't know. Particularly people who you don't know. And I think the love and joy that you brought to our podcast today in this conversation, and I know it will ripple out when people listen. And the ripples will be far and wide. 

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Where can people get OnePlate? You know, if people are listening? I think what we're saying is you have to get it [laughs]. Yeah, for yourself or as a gift. 

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Thérèse: 

The cookbook, it’s called Brunch in London, and they can get it from our website. And we have a warehouse in the UK, so the shipping isn't too much. So please get your copy from

our website and follow us on Instagram.

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Our goal, we hope that we'll sell 20,000 books, which means we'll raise £500,000 for our projects. We are hoping that we'll be able to sell those 20,000 books to raise half a million pounds for our projects.

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Kate:

Fantastic. It's fantastic. Thank you so much. Honestly, I don't know where to begin. Thank you so much for joining us Thérèse, it’s been an absolute joy. I think your wisdom, your insight, just your passion and your love and the beauty with which you've created something just remarkable.

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And clearly brunch is going to be in every city across the world before long. 

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Tabi:

Yeah. Thank you so much for even just sharing your - for me you seem like you just have a beautiful outlook on - like the things you saw in Manila must have been so hard, like so, so hard. And I think that you've taken such a beautiful, wonderful thing from it. You were there, you were helping and you were like, “I want to keep helping.” I'm not physically there serving this, I want to do more with this and make something bigger, not just a kind of one-off donation. It's a very sustainable, amazing thing where, as you said, it's a two-way charity where both are getting great things from it, which I just think is a wonderful thing.

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So yeah, thank you so much for being so open and sharing with us where it came from and your loves and passions with it. It's been wonderful speaking to you. So thank you very much.

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And everyone listening, I hope you enjoyed it as much as we have. I hope you've taken some lovely things from it. Some lovely little quotes and, do small things with great love,

everyone listening!

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So thank you so much for listening to LifeStream, we hope that you enjoyed this episode. And if you did, please subscribe, and leave us a comment. And come along again to hear more incredible guests we've got to talk to. 

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Kate:

Brilliant. We've been inspired, hope you have too! See you next time. 

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Thérèse:  

Thank you for having me. 

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All:

Bye!