A West Footscray Filipino international student has started a social enterprise after losing his job during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ryan Sta Maria had been studying commercial cooking at William Angliss Institute when the coronavirus hit and he lost his job in a pastry shop.
“When I realised I didn’t qualify for any COVID relief and losing my job in June, I was faced with some of the effects this pandemic has had on us all,” he said.
“But I also believe the pandemic brought opportunity to me – it taught me to be more fruitful and be more resourceful in my everyday life.
“Everyone has their own struggles … we all pray and do our part for it to be over, we all try to continue as best we can with what we have.
“Everything happens for a reason. As Churchill once said, ‘An optimist sees opportunity in every calamity’.
“I choose to be that optimist by using my time to start a small online business after losing my job.
“I have kept myself afloat and have already gained a great reputation within the Aust/Filo community.”
Mr Sta Maria established social enterprise, Spice of Life Gourmet, selling gourmet tuyo [dried fish] and other Filipino products.
“The main difference to other for-profit businesses is that I commit part of Spice of Life Gourmet’s profits to ending extreme poverty,” he said.
“This means I don’t have any private shareholders – never have, never will.
“All of the distributions to Spice of Life Gourmet are paid out to my project partners to fund sustainable development projects to help end poverty in my community.
“Almost a billion people live in extreme poverty, while six billion people don’t.
“We reckon the six billion of us could work together to put an end to global poverty, for good.”
For more information, visit www.gourmettuyo.com, @spiceoflifegourmet on Facebook or @spice_of_life_gourmet on Instagram.
