Merge Café, at 453 Karangahape Road, Auckland Central, is unlike any other café — every dollar spent there goes towards supporting people experiencing homelessness. Run by Lifewise, it's open weekdays from 7am to 2pm, serving what the team calls plates of goodness and cups of kindness since 2010.
Merge Café operates on a pay-it-forward model: subsidised meals cost $5-$7 for the community, even though the hearty lunches served cost $12 per meal to produce. Anyone able to pay more is encouraged to pay it forward, helping provide free meals to people who are homeless or living on the margins, or to buy a 5-meal card for someone in need.
Before it was Merge Café, the site was the Airedale Community Centre, a soup kitchen that served over 40,000 meals a year to Auckland's homeless from 1885. In November 2010, Lifewise made the decision to close the soup kitchen and open a café in its place, recognising that it was maintaining rather than solving the issue of homelessness. Merge Café is now one of only a small handful of such cafés worldwide, and the only one of its kind in New Zealand.
Merge Café, at 453 Karangahape Road in Auckland Central, is unlike any other café — every dollar spent there goes toward supporting people experiencing homelessness.
Before Merge Café existed, the site was home to the Airedale Community Centre, a bustling and well-known soup kitchen that served over 40,000 meals a year to Auckland's homeless people from 1885. Over time, Lifewise realised that despite the best intentions, the soup kitchen was maintaining rather than solving the issue of homelessness. In November 2010, the organisation made the brave decision to close the soup kitchen and open a café in its place.
Since 2010, Merge Café has served what the team calls plates of goodness and cups of kindness. The café provides subsidised meals costing $5-$7 to the community, even though the hearty lunches served actually cost $12 per meal to produce. Anyone fortunate enough to have a roof over their head and food in the fridge is encouraged to pay it forward — adding a few dollars when paying for their own meal, or buying a 5-meal card for someone in need. For anyone who can't make it in person, donations to Merge Café can also be made online.
Merge Café's goal is right there in its name: to merge. It's a space where anyone and everyone is welcome, regardless of background or social and economic status, built around choice, dignity and respect. The café has played a crucial role in supporting Auckland's street whānau and those experiencing homelessness, breaking down societal barriers and offering a warm, safe and supportive place to sit at shared tables, share a meal, and have a conversation.
Merge Café connects patrons with wrap-around services through the Merge Community team, which operates from the café and upstairs, providing guidance and advocacy alongside pathways out of homelessness. Beyond food, the café offers free Wi-Fi and iPad access, a community noticeboard for job vacancies, event updates and housing information, an alfresco area that hosts BBQs and music events, and a Book Club for anyone wanting quieter time with a book or magazine.
Merge Café's great food, excellent tea and coffee, friendly service and cool atmosphere have made it an award-winning destination. It's one of only a small handful of cafés like it worldwide, and the only one of its kind in New Zealand. The café is supported by the Lottery Grants Board, The Tindall Foundation, Auckland Council, Woolworths, and further contributions from Bidfood, JR McKenzie, Foundation North, The Methodist Church of NZ, Ernest Hyam Davis (Perpetual Guardian), and Miller's.
Merge Café is open weekdays, 7am to 2pm, at 453 Karangahape Road, Auckland Central. Those interested in hosting an event at the café that does good while doing good can get in touch directly with the team.
Between its roots in a 19th-century soup kitchen, a genuinely rare pay-it-forward business model, and a mission built around dignity and connection rather than charity alone, Merge Café offers something no ordinary café can: a chance to share a meal and, in doing so, help change someone's world.