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.
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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.