NEW SOCIAL BITE COFFEE SHOP, TO HELP END HOMELESSNESS
With five coffee shops already running across three cities in Scotland, the new London site will offer a ‘Pay-It-Forward’ system and will employ people from the homeless community
TUESDAY 15th March, London. Today Social Bite, the social enterprise that aims to end homelessness, launches its very first coffee shop in London with the help of a whole host of famous faces.
Famous faces turned out to offer support and also serve morning commuters their coffee, breakfast and lunch, with names including actor Martin Compston, radio and TV host Kate Garraway, radio presenter Chris Evans, singer and musicians Martin Kemp and Matt Willis, actor Nikesh Patel and PussyCat Dolls star Ashley Roberts all turning up to lend a hand and meet its new employees.
The new coffee shop will operate a rewarding ‘Pay-It-Forward’ system whereby customers who come in to buy a coffee or a sandwich can buy an additional meal or hot drink in advance for someone who is homeless to redeem later.
The new opening will become Social Bite’s very first site outside of Scotland and will employ people from the homeless community to work there full-time. The charity aims for 1 in 4 of their staff to come from a background of homelessness. Like all other of its sites across Scotland, Social Bite aims to give out an average of 180,000 items of free food and hot drinks year-round across its network of coffee shops and charity partners. They have provided more than 800,000 food packs during the pandemic alone.
The new shop will be a permanent fixture located within the hustle and bustle of the Strand near Covent Garden. The Borough of Westminster, specifically the Strand, is the ‘epicentre’ of homelessness in the UK, with an exceptionally high number of rough sleepers. Westminster has the highest rates of rough sleepers in the whole of England, and almost six times higher than any other London borough.
Social Bite shot to global fame when the Edinburgh café was visited by Hollywood superstars Leonardo DiCaprio and George Clooney. Other famous visitors to the café include The Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Harry & Meghan Markle, and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.
Josh Littlejohn MBE, Founder of Social Bite, said: “We are delighted to be able to launch a new coffee shop in central London. It’s such an incredible milestone for us all here at Social Bite. There are many great charities already working in London, but we truly believe that our social impact program is life-changing and provides something unique, having helped the lives of thousands we are excited to bring this change to the streets of London”.
Social Bite was founded by Josh Littlejohn and Alice Thompson in 2012, after a young homeless man came into its Edinburgh café and asked for a job. Since then, Social Bite has been committed to tackling homelessness via innovative programmes including training, employment, and housing; having pioneered the Scottish Government’s adoption of Housing First. It now has five fully functional coffee shops in three cities in Scotland, each employing people who have experienced homelessness.
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