The founder of a not-for-profit restaurant at the former Abbotsford Convent has vowed to fight to stay after management put its lease out for tender.

Shanaka​ Fernando, creator of the Lentil as Anything chain, claims the vegetarian eatery's landlord, the Abbotsford Convent Foundation, is kicking it out to seek a higher rent-paying tenant.

He said it was part of "a strategy to get rid of us". The foundation was running a "process of gentrification", he said, and management wanted the convent to be "a little South of France hobby farm, where community means having some high-end artists and organic vegetables that the common person can't afford".

Lentil customers pay only what they can afford or deem reasonable for meals. Mr Fernando said Lentil had trained "thousands" of asylum seekers and volunteer workers.

He warned that Lentil had community goodwill on its side and would fight long and hard to stay. He would approach Premier Daniel Andrews to intervene.

A letter on Tuesday from the foundation to Lentil said that a Request for Tender process would start on October 12, and that Lentil and the Kappaya​ Japanese restaurant had until November 20 to re-apply for tenancy.

The letter states that the foundation's policy is "we do not automatically renew any hospitality lease" and it wished to "consider all options" for the Lentil site.

Speaking from Sri Lanka on Thursday, Mr Fernando said: "We will embark on a massive community campaign to gauge what the community feels about it."

Relations with the Convent Foundation were poisonous, he said.

In 2010, after a five-year tenancy at the convent by Lentil as Anything, the foundation had similarly moved to open the lease to outside businesses.

Abbotsford Convent Foundation CEO Maggie Maguire said at the time it sought "an interesting and eclectic mix of activities" at the convent.

After public outcry, the foundation halted the tender process, but since 2011 Lentil had worked under a month by month lease.

Ms Maguire said last week the short lease was due to "confidential issues" with the tenant, however Mr Fernando told The Sunday Age that he didn't know what the issues were.

Mr Fernando said for about a year, there had been arrears in utility bills, but that had long been resolved.

He believed the reason for the current lease tender was "because they want more rent from a high end social enterprise", although Lentil hadn't been asked to pay higher rent.

Ms Maguire said Lentil might ultimately have to leave but it was early in the process. "It's a bit over the top", she said, of Lentil's reaction.

She said the request for tender, or request for proposal was "quite standard" in hospitality. Interested parties, including Lentil As Anything, could put in an expression of interest "to operate a hospitality business at the convent".

The preferred tenderer would be chosen by mid-December after a process supervised by an external food and beverage consultant. The selection criteria would include how the outlet would contribute to the convent's community culture, whether there was freshly prepared food made on site, artisan products and a genuine hospitality-focused service.

Asked if this meant the rent would go up, Ms Maguire said, "who knows? That's why I'm a bit surprised [with Lentil's reaction]. This is a bit horse before the cart. The process hasn't even opened yet."

Mr Fernando claimed that the foundation was "very uncomfortable with the riff raff that comes to Lentil – the homeless, the prostitutes the drug addicts".

Ms Maguire said it would be in Lentil's best interests for Mr Fernando to "focus his redoubtable energies on submitting the best possible application to the independent assessors" and that the final decision would be based "solely on the best interests of the convent and its 1 million visitors a year".