Social Bite is a movement to end homelessness
We’re a charity and social business providing homes, jobs, food, and support to empower people to transform their own lives.
Our vision is a society where no one should have to be homeless. We challenge the status quo by pioneering solutions that create lasting change.
Humble beginnings
Social Bite’s story begins in Edinburgh, Scotland in August 2012. Founders Josh and Alice opened a small shop selling sandwiches and coffees, with any profits going to various charities. Not long after, a young homeless man named Peter came into the shop to ask for a job, and that brave act kick-started Social Bite’s mission to end homelessness.
Offering Peter employment was the origin of an unexpected 10+ years of charitable work and campaigning on the issues of homelessness.
Seeing the profoundly positive effects of employment on Peter, we offered more jobs to other people experiencing homelessness. The power of supported employment to transform people’s lives was clear, and ever since it’s been our aim for 1 in 4 of our team to come from a background of homelessness.
After a few months, we also introduced a “Pay it Forward” system in our coffee shop. This concept allowed customers to buy food or drink for people experiencing homelessness to claim later on. The system still operates in all our coffee shops today.
Good food for a good cause, all year round
Good food has always been at the heart of what we do.
Supplying freshly made food to people in need year-round has led to us becoming one of the largest free food providers in the UK. We typically provide 165,000 food and drink items every year through our network of coffee shops. Starting in 2018, our charitable grants to grassroots organisations across the UK have also provided more than a million meals. We distributed over 800,000 food packs during the pandemic.
We believe that everyone deserves to enjoy a meal in good company, so we bring people together for meaningful experiences around food. As well as takeaway food, our Scottish coffee shops offer a weekly sit-in meal for people experiencing homelessness or food poverty. From 2016 until 2023 we also ran a restaurant, Vesta Bar & Kitchen, formerly called ‘Home.’ Vesta provided weekly sit-down meals for an average of 40 people experiencing homelessness and food poverty, as well as training opportunities for our supported employees.
Since 2014 we’ve opened our Scottish shops for free food every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Christmas at Social Bite means festivities and feasting, with all the trimmings! We welcome anyone who might not have anywhere else to go with food and a gift, no questions asked. Our annual Festival of Kindness has collected gifts and donations throughout the festive period since 2020, providing support for people who are vulnerable or experiencing homelessness on Christmas Day and beyond.
This is a movement
Since Social Bite began, we’ve always invited people to join the movement to end homelessness in whatever way they can.
Over the years, our work has been visited and supported by George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Sir Chris Hoy, Malala Yousafzai, Martin Kemp, Emma and Matt Willis, Catherine, Princess of Wales, and many others.
We have a saying, ‘there is no them and us, only us.’ So it doesn’t matter who you are, we all have a part to play. We’re hugely grateful to everyone who supports our work in any way; whether they volunteer, pay forward lunch for someone else, donate skills or resources, run a marathon, take part in one of our fundraising events, or so much more.
It was amazing to see so many people come together from all walks of life when we organised mass participation fundraising events called Sleep in the Park. From 2016 to 2018, these ‘sleep outs’ saw more than 18,000 people sleeping under the stars in solidarity, to call for an end to homelessness. The events raised over £8 million, which was invested in a range of flagship projects designed to help end homelessness.
Housing and communities
In 2018, we used funds raised from the Sleep in the Park events to launch the Social Bite Village in Edinburgh. We took vacant council-owned land and built a small village made up of 11 two-bedroom prefabricated houses and a large communal hub for socialising. We partnered with a local charity, Cyrenians, to provide dedicated on-site support with links to employment, education and community activities.
Today, the Edinburgh village is home to a vibrant community of people helping each other get back on their feet. Due to its success, in 2023 we announced two further villages would be built, one in South Lanarkshire, Greater Glasgow, and a recovery village in Dundee.
We also created and launched Scotland’s Housing First programme, back in 2018. This was an incredible step in changing how homelessness is managed in Scotland.
Using some of the sleep out funding, we commissioned research into reducing the use of temporary accommodation. We also secured 830 mainstream flats across five Scottish cities to provide permanent homes to Scotland’s rough sleepers. Alongside Scottish Government, we helped to fund wraparound support to help people sustain their tenancies. More than 1,300 people were given homes with support in the following few years and the Housing First approach has been adopted by all local authorities in Scotland.
Both projects recognise that people who have experienced homelessness need more than a roof over their head. Providing ongoing support and a community is more likely to result in longer-term success and transform an individual’s life.
Raising awareness at home and abroad
In 2019 our co-founder, Josh Littlejohn MBE, brought Social Bite’s work and the issues of homelessness to a global audience with an international campaign called The World’s Big Sleepout. The events saw 60,000 people in 52 cities around the world sleep out on a cold December night to raise awareness and funds on the issue of homelessness. The World’s Big Sleep Out closed both New York City’s famous Times Square and London’s iconic Trafalgar Square, with Will Smith and Dame Helen Mirren telling participants a bedtime story! Social Bite hosted our local Edinburgh event in Princes Street Gardens.
Mass participation events were harder to host during the pandemic. However, 2021 saw us run of the few events able to take place that year, with the launch of Break the Cycle with Sir Chris Hoy. For two years, our mass cycling fundraiser saw 1,500 people pedalling for change across Scotland. In 2023, we expanded the concept into our 100 Mile Challenge, which invites fundraisers to cover 100 miles in any way they choose over 40 days, finishing on World Homelessness Day.
Working together for meaningful change
We continue to innovate to provide lasting solutions to break the cycle of homelessness.
In 2021, we consolidated everything we’d learned about employing people affected by homelessness and launched our UK-wide supported employment programme. Jobs First provides real job opportunities with 15 months of wraparound support for both the employee who has experienced homelessness and their employer. We have supported almost 100 people into employment and work with 10 employers across the UK to transform access to the job market for people who have previously been excluded.
As well as our Jobs First programme, we’re proud to partner with some truly outstanding organisations across the UK to help end homelessness. The time and generosity of our supporters and partners in raising awareness, building our villages, expanding local outreach and strengthening community impact is a humble reminder of our collaborative movement.
We’re immensely grateful to all the people who have supported and continue to support us, adding their voice and passion to the movement to end homelessness.
JOIN THE MOVEMENT TO END HOMELSSNESS
Donate today to support our project which break the cycle of homelessness by providing homes, jobs, food and lasting
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