Cafe picture exposes the troubling reality of life in Australia right now

A photo of a packed cafe offering discounted meals to Australians in need highlights the severity of the country’s cost of living crisis.

Hare Krishna Food For Life’s vegan and vegetarian restaurant Crossways on Swanston Street in Melbourne’s CBD has been offering low-cost meals since opening in 1983.

Unlimited meals are offered twice a day, six days a week for $9.50, with discounts for students, retirees and concession card holders.

“Generations of tertiary students have relied on Crossways’ meals to fuel their studies: we hope you will call, whether you have returned to on-campus classes or are still studying at home,” the website reads.

‘If you are a pensioner or a concession card holder, all you have to do is show your card to get a discount. At Crossways you can relax wonderfully.

“If you’ve fallen out of the social safety net, you can find a place here.”

A photo of the busy restaurant shared on Reddit on Wednesday highlighted how many were increasingly relying on the restaurant amid tough financial times.

“Celebrating Gopal’s Hare Krishna food charity in Swanston St: the only thing keeping me from starving on the streets of Melbourne,” the photo’s caption read.

The cafe patron claimed the restaurant was “the only thing keeping him from starving on the streets” because it offered cheap all-you-can-eat meals and free food for the homeless.

Others agreed, claiming the cheap meals helped them through financial difficulties and were delicious too.

“If you’re hungry, they don’t care [religious] hookup, have a food friend. Astounding kindness considering the state of, well, everything,” one person wrote.

“If you’re getting paid, definitely come by and throw in a few dollars more than asked for the food, it’s worth it, and the extra money helps them give food to people who really can’t spare anything,” noted one second op.

‘The food there is absolutely amazing. I challenge anyone to find similarly priced meals that are a fraction of the taste and content of this place,” a third person added.

A fourth added: ‘When I was a child, after my mum and dad divorced, my mum used to take us here. We thought it was such a treat. Years later we discovered that the only reason we went was because Mother couldn’t feed us for a few weeks.”

However, some online commenters said they wouldn’t go to a Hare Krishna facility no matter how cheap the food was.

Hare Krishna is an offshoot of Hindu theology and has long fought accusations of cult-like mental capture of its followers.

It comes after the Food Bank – the country’s largest food aid organization – found that 3.7 million households in Australia were experiencing food insecurity.

Nearly half of those surveyed reported that they had reduced their purchases of fresh produce and proteins to cope with the problems.

The organisation’s Victorian center was forced to launch an emergency food response to restock shelves in August amid unprecedented demand and rising donations.

Foodbank Victoria CEO David McNamara said working families needed more and more support from the Foodbank.

“The middle class, which we all aspire to, are the ones who will feel this impact,” he told the Herald Sun.

“We have mothers and fathers who work two jobs to put family first and to put food on the table, and unfortunately they put themselves to bed without food, they send their children to bed without food – and that’s not our society, that’s not who we think we are.’