How Gemma Leslie Turned a Kitchen-Table Fundraiser Into a Creative Studio, One Poster at a Time

Even if you don’t know Gemma Leslie by name, chances are you’ve seen her work. Produced under the banner of Food for Everyone, her colourful posters, created in collaboration with chefs, artists and venues, have found their way into kitchens and homes across Australia.

But the idea was never meant to become a business. Food for Everyone’s colourful posters now hang in homes around Australia, but six years ago Gemma Leslie was packing hundreds of orders from her kitchen table after an unexpected response to a lockdown fundraiser. “I’d been painting for a few weeks because I had nothing else to do,” she says. What began as a hobby quickly became a fundraiser, sparked by the Covid lockdown of the public housing towers in Flemington in 2020.

Leslie wanted to help the families affected, so she began selling illustrated recipe prints and donating the proceeds to Fareshare Australia, which was providing meals to the community.

“I asked my chef friends for recipes,” she says, reaching out to names like Julia Busuttil Nishimura and Clementine Day for dishes that inspired her early posters. “I painted them, designed them and printed them." 

The response transformed a one-off fundraiser into a business. 

“The orders just started flooding in,” Leslie says. “I think I got 600 in one day. I raised $33,000 from that first response to the towers.” 

As orders poured in, Leslie realised that turning a one-off fundraiser into a sustainable business would take more than great design. Managing hundreds of orders each week became a job in itself, prompting her to streamline fulfilment through Australia Post as Food for Everyone continued to grow.

Six years later, the brand has evolved into a creative studio collaborating with chefs, artists, hospitality venues and charities across the country. Today, every poster sold funds 10 meals through Secondbite, contributing to the more than one million meals funded since the project began.

Despite its growth, Leslie is determined to keep the business grassroots.

“We want to stay small so we can tell the stories of different cultures and not get too big for our boots,” she says. 

Sustaining that growth means keeping the back end of the business as efficient as possible. As orders increased, Leslie needed a fulfilment process that could keep up. Automation through Australia Post reduced hours of manual admin, allowing her to spend more time developing collaborations and growing the business.

“I went from typing every order out manually on the computer to having a plug-in, so now I can print orders automatically,” she says. “I’m good friends with the postie, Beau. It’s one of the nicest parts of the week when he comes and picks up the orders.” 

That efficiency has allowed Leslie to focus on what matters most: collaborating with creatives, growing the business thoughtfully and continuing to give back.

“I’m really proud that we can commission artists at a rate they should be paid, run a business and give back to charity at the same time,” she says. “It’s not really about the art. It’s about the community.”

This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Australia Post.