Social Bite have teamed up with itison again for 2024 to provide homeless people in Glasgow with Christmas dinners

National World - LocalTV

For over ten years Social Bite have been working with itison to ensure those sleeping rough have a meal at Christmas. While the public can buy the meals through itison it is Social Bite who serve them.

Transcript

00:00Over 10 years ago, Josh approached me at It Is On with an incredible idea.

00:04And today, fast forward 10 years, we've fundraised over £3 million,

00:08750,000 meals for the homeless.

00:10This was back in 2014.

00:12We decided to open up our social bike cafes on Christmas Day for people that were homeless,

00:16but we didn't have very much money to rub together as a tiny little charity.

00:19So we approached Ollie and asked him if he might run a deal on It Is On

00:23where someone could buy a homeless person a Christmas dinner for £5.

00:26And he agreed to do that.

00:28And I remember he asked us how many we'd like to sell.

00:31And I said, well, maybe if we could sell 800 dinners at £5,

00:35then we could open up two cafes.

00:38And he said, what happens if you sell more?

00:40And I said, well, we're struggling to feed people to fund that in the new year.

00:44So maybe we could keep our funds topped up for a couple of weeks into the new year

00:47to help fund people.

00:49And the deal launched, and we were all glued to the laptops watching it.

00:53And it sold at 800 target in about 10 minutes.

00:56And it ran for two weeks in the run-up to Christmas and sold 36,000 Christmas dinners.

01:00So that was the start of this incredible fundraising partnership

01:04that's really turned out to be the lifeblood of Social Bite as a charity.

01:08Since this kind of cost-of-living crisis and after the pandemic,

01:11we're also seeing an increasing number of people that you might not have otherwise expected

01:15that are just really struggling to make ends meet.

01:17And they might be living in temporary homeless accommodations.

01:20And they might be really lonely in that accommodation coming up to Christmas.

01:24So it not just gives the opportunity for a meal,

01:26but also that loving company from the team and a sense of community as well.

01:31We're just a facilitator and a funder through our membership,

01:35but also giving the eyeballs and the exposure.

01:37So we reach a million and a half people every single day.

01:41That is a huge catalyst to understanding the problem in Scotland specifically.

01:46And then through that, Social Bite and Josh has been able to do all sorts of different things.

01:51I think it's opened doors.

01:52I think it's not only facilitated the meals for the homeless.

01:56These guys are unbelievably entrepreneurial.

01:58We're an entrepreneurial organisation,

02:00and I think the meeting of those two minds is really powerful.

02:02There's several things I'd love people to know.

02:04Number one, get onto etison.com.

02:07Give whatever you can.

02:08Buy whatever you can.

02:09It starts at £5.

02:11For me, so many people at this time of year, myself included,

02:13often buy frivolous stuff, whether it's Christmas cards,

02:16which I consider frivolous, or stocking fillers.

02:19Give one of these.

02:20You'll feel great about yourself,

02:22but you'll also have the knowledge that somebody who's sleeping rough in this weather

02:25will get some incredible respite from Social Bite.

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