Social Bite
A cafe with a cause in Edinburgh that became a movement to end homelessness.
What is it: A sandwich shop in Edinburgh that became a movement to end homelessness in Scotland (and has also captured the attention of Meghan Markle, George Clooney, and Helen Mirren)
What you need to know: The first café was opened in 2012 on Edinburgh’s Rose Street – amongst the Subways and Prets — by co-founders Josh Littlejohn MBE and Alice Thompson (who recently left to join motivational speaker agency Speaker Buzz). From the outset, Social Bite donated its profits to homeless causes and a pay-it-forward jar sat on the counter so that customers could donate a meal to people experiencing homelessness. Now Social Bite has grown into an award-winning social enterprise with five of its mission-driven cafes across three cities (now including Glasgow and Aberdeen), and one central kitchen.
But there’s also now this – a housing development Social Bite Village, the now international Sleep Out campaign, and an annual fundraising campaign to provide Christmas meals to the homeless (the cafés in Glasgow and Edinburgh this year opened to homeless people in Edinburgh and Glasgow and served 155,000 meals).
How to bring this into your life: One small ask: Buy a box of brownies. Each ethically sourced and handmade brownie box helps to fund jobs, housing, and support for people experiencing homelessness. Need more ideas? Social Bite has a ton of them for wherever you are, like using Amazon Smile, Sustainably, and Give as You Live.
Why we think it matters: At a moment when homelessness and food insecurity are becoming dire consequences of the Coronavirus epidemic, Social Bite's mission of tackling homelessness with compassion, support, and love is needed more than ever. One-third of the cafes’ workforce are people who have struggled with homelessness. Their high-end restaurant Vesta Bar + Kitchen sets aside Monday afternoons to feed people experiencing homelessness for free and with humanity – with a two-course menu of dishes typically offered to paying patrons during the week. And the business did a very quick pivot when the COVID crisis hit. They shifted their operations to feeding the hungry — still including the homeless, but also now those experiencing food poverty and vulnerable children and adults — with a weekly target of providing 5000 emergency food packs to partners in communities in Scotland, and 160 free meals distributed each day in the cafes in Edinburgh and Glasgow.
In their own words: “We believe that now more than ever, there is a need to put aside our differences and come together to ensure that everyone has a safe space to call home.”
Inspired to: Volunteer to help the homeless and feed the hungry in your community. Pack food parcels at your local food bank (and donate items), support campaigns for free school lunches, and share food going to waste on the Olio app.
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
Try also: London’s Luminary Bakery and Brigade Bar + Kitchen
Brigade Bar + Kitchen
At Brigade Bar + Kitchen, food is bringing brighter futures to London’s homeless.
“The first thing that cooking does, and professional cooking, is that it gives you structure. And that’s exactly what people need when they have a highly complex situation where they have lost everything. Probably structure is the one thing that they are desperate for.”
What is it: On London’s South Bank, heaving with history in a converted brick fire station similarly heaving with history (built after the Great Fire, it’s one of the capital’s oldest), Brigade Bar + Kitchen is not just a lovely place to escape for a meal, but a vital place for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness to escape their situation.
What you need to know: Founded by Simon Boyle, Beyond Food of which this restaurant is the public-facing part, offers cooking apprenticeships, opportunities, and support for people who have been displaced. The figures of those helped are a testament that it is having an impact: 3,500 people have been through Breakthrough Kitchen, 1,200 through Freshlife, and 825 have graduated from Get Stuck In, with 133 people now employed full time
Why you’ll love it: Beyond Brigade is built on generosity. And we’re not saying that lightly. Even during the bleakest days of the pandemic, Boyle didn’t stop making good things happen through food. During the lockdown, and as his own restaurant closed, Boyle and his team kept working with other restaurants to bring meals to those in need and to redistribute food to hospitals, food banks, and direly impacted communities. Boyle set up the Beyond Food support line, offering mental health resources for people in the hospitality sector — from chefs to pot washers to servers — experiencing financial hardship, loneliness, and lost motivation. As the hospitality industry still struggles from the impacts of COVID 19, Hospitality Made Again is helping it survive.
How to bring this into your life: If you are someone in the hospitality sector who has been furloughed or are out of work check out Made Again, which offers a 100% free program for positively approaching this situation.
Also Invisible Chips. Yep, these exist: 0% fat, 100% charity (read a three pounds fifty donation to help Hospitality Action). Or you can directly support the work of the Beyond Food Foundation by buying new cookbook Feast with Purpose that includes recipes from 140 chefs.
Why we think it matters: Work is so integral to our sense of self. It gives us something to focus on, it allows us to be part of something bigger, it offers financial and life stability. For the homeless community that Boyle works with it also offers a different life and a different future. Through programs that support over 100 people each year, Beyond Food takes on some of the social issues that keep people homeless including health problems, substance abuse, housing shortages and benefit dependency, and some of the personal ones such as low self-esteem, a sense of hopelessness, and lack of purpose, to create the infrastructure for different lives.
In their own words: “Our solution is based around simple, good food. Cooking it and serving it. At Beyond Food, we aim to inspire people to begin the process of developing skills and attitudes that can become the foundation for their work and life for the future. We bring freshly cooked food into the lives of vulnerable people, as it plays a crucial role in helping them stand on their own two feet. It helps them live healthier lives. Learning the basics of cooking, equips them with building blocks to create lives full of purpose. Good food, kitchen skills and harnessing a sense of vitality, lays the groundwork towards helping them contribute and belong in society.”
To find out more: Website / Instagram / Facebook / Twitter
If you’ve visited Brigade Bar + Kitchen or you know other restaurants with purpose let us know about it. Things change all the time and we want to make sure we’re bringing you the most up to date information and the latest places to go to help.