Plate it Forward and Dilmah Partner to Launch Harvest2 in Sri Lanka
-Supporting more than 2,700 children daily across Sri Lanka’s east coast through nutrition, sustainable agriculture and community-led food systems.
Branded Media Release/Posted 29 June,2026
Sydney, Australia: Plate it Forward has partnered with Dilmah Tea and the MJF Charitable Foundation to launch Harvest2, a long-term food security, education and sustainable agriculture program supporting rural communities across Sri Lanka’s east coast.
From Saturday 11 July, Sydney diners will also be able to directly support Harvest2 through Colombo Social’s new Sri Lankan High Tea experience. Every booking will fund 10 meals for children supported through the initiative, connecting Sydney diners directly to its impact across Sri Lanka.
Already underway across the Batticaloa District of Sri Lanka, the initiative will expand across 23 rural schools over the next 12 months, supporting more than 2,700 children through daily meal programs, environmental education and community-led agricultural initiatives.
Building on Dilmah’s long-standing Sustainable Empowerment Programme (SEP), Harvest2 connects small-scale farmers, schools and community kitchens through a locally embedded food system designed to create long-term impact.
Through Harvest2, small-scale farmers will supply fresh produce directly to school kitchens across the Batticaloa District, creating stable income pathways for local families while ensuring students receive nutritious daily meals.
Participating schools will also become hubs for environmental and agricultural education, incorporating organic gardens, fruit orchards, native tree planting, beekeeping initiatives and biogas-powered kitchens designed to create long-term community resilience.
For Plate it Forward Founder Shaun Christie-David, the initiative is a natural extension of the organisation’s long-standing work using food to create opportunity, address food insecurity and support communities through hospitality, representing the social enterprise’s most ambitious international initiative to date.
“The sliding door moment of Mum and Dad leaving Sri Lanka for Australia changed the course of our lives and gave us opportunities we could never have imagined, in a country we are so proud to now call home,” says Christie-David. “But with that has always come a deep desire to give back and honour the opportunities and luck we have had.
“For us, that means returning to the east coast of Sri Lanka, a place that has experienced so much hardship through war and economic challenges, and doing what we know best – changing lives through food.”
The initiative also places a strong focus on women-led employment pathways, with local mothers engaged in preparing meals through community kitchen programs designed to feel familiar, accessible and reflective of rural home kitchens.
“Harvest2 is such a holistic approach to impact. It’s not just about feeding children. It’s about creating long-term change through food education, organic and sustainable gardens, and employment pathways for women who have long been excluded from the workforce, while providing healthy, nutritious meals for children who deserve every opportunity in life,”
Christie-David continues.
Harvest2 is also a deeply personal initiative for Shaun Christie-David, who is leading the project alongside his mother, Shiranie Christie-David.
Originally from Batticaloa, Shiranie migrated from Sri Lanka’s east coast during the civil war, with Harvest2 representing a long-held vision between mother and son to give back to the communities she left behind,together transforming their connection to Sri Lanka into long-term impact for future generations. “In this day and age, it really saddens me to see that there are children still going hungry. There shouldn’t be a child who has to go looking for food,” says Shiranie Christie-David. “Batticaloa is where my mum grew up, and it brings back a lot of nostalgia for me. I’m so happy that we are able to move forward with this project in my hometown.
“What we are trying to do is ensure we never forget our roots or take for granted the opportunities we have had. This is our way of giving back to Sri Lanka in our own small way.”
The partnership will also come to life locally through Colombo Social’s new Sri Lankan High Tea experience, launching on Saturday 11 July. Available every Saturday and Sunday from 12pm-4pm, the experience is priced at $50 per person and includes unlimited Dilmah tea. Drawing on classic Sri Lankan flavours and family recipes, the High Tea features ribbon sandwiches, seeni sambol and cheese tarts, lamb curry sausage rolls, beef patties, fish cutlets and pol roti served with sambols, before finishing with Amma’s love cake, spiced snails and freshly baked scones with Sri Lankan pineapple jam and nutmeg clotted cream. Guests can also upgrade to unlimited tea-inspired mocktail ($20) or cocktail ($40) packages.
Every High Tea booking funds 10 meals for children supported through Harvest2.
“At Dilmah, we believe in making the world a better tea. Through Harvest2 and our partnership with Colombo Social we bring this mission to life in a very tangible way,” says Dilhan C. Fernando, CEO & Chairman, Dilmah.
“My sincere thanks to Shaun, Shiranie and the wonderful team at Plate it forward for helping connect Australian diners with our mission.
“From July 11, every diner at Sri lankan High Tea at Colombo Social will help support schoolchildren, farming families and sustainable livelihoods in Sri Lanka. It demonstrates the extraordinary impact that can happen when hospitality, community and purpose come together.”
Locally, Plate it Forward has donated more than 664,000 meals to support food security, and delivered over 280,000 hours of paid training and employment opportunities to people facing barriers to work.
Harvest2 builds on that impact, extending the organisation’s work into Sri Lanka through the] community-led model.
“Thinking with empathy, care and humanity means asking yourself what someone going through difficult circumstances truly needs most,” Christie-David concludes. “Sometimes the simplest and most powerful way to show someone you care about them is by feeding them. To be able to say to our customers that by dining with us, they are helping feed children facing hardship, is something incredibly meaningful.”
Harvest2 is already underway across Sri Lanka’s east coast, with Colombo Social’s Sri Lankan High Tea. launching on Saturday 11 July and available every Saturday and Sunday from 12pm-4pm.
ABOUT PLATE IT FORWARD
Plate it Forward is a Sydney-based social enterprise using food as a vehicle for social change, providing employment, training and community support to people facing barriers to opportunity through its venues Colombo Social, Kyiv Social and Kabul Social, its Catering arm and meal programs.
ABOUT DILMAH & THE MJF CHARITABLE FOUNDATION
Founded by Merrill J. Fernando, Dilmah is a family-owned tea company committed to quality, ethics and humanitarian impact. Through the MJF Charitable Foundation and Dilmah Conservation, a minimum of 15% of pre-tax profits are directed towards humanitarian and environmental initiatives.
