Scottish charity launches sweet new campaign to help end homelessness
Social Bite has today (20 Oct) launched a brand-new food delivery service to help grow its social enterprise business and help more people affected by homelessness in Scotland.
Whether given as a gift or bought as a treat, customers will be doing good with every purchase of Social Bite’s “Boxes of Joy” brownies as 100% of the proceeds made will be going towards the organisation’s effort to end homelessness.
Boxes filled with four delicious brownies in a variety of flavours can be purchased directly from Social Bite online for £12 per box, with vegan and gluten free options available and UK-wide delivery.
As a social enterprise business, Social Bite exists to achieve social objectives and is driven by a cause, rather than profit. It is hoped that the new food delivery service will help to sustain its enterprise model and support more people into jobs to help break the cycle of homelessness. One in three members of Social Bite staff have experienced homelessness as an extreme barrier to employment.
The organisation is aiming to sell its first 1000 boxes of brownies, made in the Social Bite kitchen in Livingston, West Lothian, by the end of October to get them on their way. When customers buy brownies online, they will also be given the option to ‘pay it forward’ so Social Bite can distribute brownies to people experiencing homelessness on its free food handouts.
Social Bite was launched by Josh Littlejohn and Alice Thompson and runs a chain of five social enterprise cafes in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, a Social Bite Delivery business which employs and supports people affected by homelessness, as well as Vesta Bar & Kitchen in Edinburgh.
Like many other organisations, Social Bite has had to re-purpose as a result of the global pandemic and earlier this year began delivering free emergency food and essential packs to those people most in need. Over 500,000 free emergency food packs have been distributed and continue to leave the Central Kitchen daily.
Josh Littlejohn MBE, Co-founder of Social Bite, said: “It is a pleasure to be announcing some good news today as we officially launch our new brownie delivery service.
“Like many hospitality businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic put the future of our organisation into great uncertainty. Our biggest concern is for the homeless and vulnerable people that we support on a daily basis who are the worst affected.
“Our teams have worked so hard to produce and deliver food and supplies to those in need, processing 6000 emergency packs a day at the peak of the crisis. Now they will be adding the production of 200 boxes of brownies a week to their remit to bring a smile to people’s faces in what continues to be a challenging time for all.
“By purchasing these brownies, you will be helping us to grow our offering, create more jobs within our enterprise and continue to support our charitable work.”
In just eight years, Social Bite has expanded to five venues across Scotland. Celebrity endorsement from the likes of George Clooney, Leonardo Di Caprio, Will Smith and Dame Helen Mirren have helped to raise the profile of Social Bite and its worldwide mass sleep out events.
Social Bite has also created a movement which in turn has funded programmes designed to break the cycle of homelessness, including the Social Bite village and Housing First.
Josh Littlejohn MBE is recognised as one of the UK’s leading social entrepreneurs and has raised over £15m for charity and homelessness causes at the age of just 34.
For more information, please visit: https://shop.social-bite.co.uk or https://youtu.be/qW2m5mKFhpE.
Follow Social Bite on Facebook @SocialBiteBusiness, Twitter @SocialBite_ and Instagram @Social_Bite.