Scots can buy homeless people Christmas dinner on December 25 as part of a festive campaign.
Social Bite and itison have joined forces for the 10th year to fundraise for disadvantaged people, and are asking the public to donate just £5 towards a Christmas meal or to provide gifts for children who may not have presents to open.
Over the last decade, the campaign has raised more than £3 million with 700,000 donations made.
People will be given three options when they donate: to contribute £5 for a Christmas dinner for a homeless person, provide presents for children, or make a donation to the first Social Bite villages in Glasgow and Dundee, giving someone the gift of a home.
Launching the campaign with itison CEO Oli Norman on Wednesday (December 6), Social Bite founder Josh Littlejohn MBE said: “Over the past 10 years, itison customers have been some of our most loyal donors and we’re extremely grateful to them for their on-going support.
"Their donations have made a true difference to people experiencing homelessness.
"This year, is even more important as we ask for support for our planned Social Bite Villages in Dundee and just outside Glasgow, which will transform the lives of many.”
Oli Norman said: “When we first launched our partnership with Social Bite back in 2014, our goal was to help raise enough to provide 800 dinners for people who were experiencing homelessness.
“We sold 800 vouchers in the first hour and it’s quite phenomenal that we are now in our tenth year having donated over 750,000 meals so far.
“As the temperatures plummet outside, this is one the hardest and loneliest times of the year for people facing homelessness and we are calling on our members to dig deep to donate and help us spread the word of the vital work Social Bite provides at this time of the year.”
Social Bite coffee shops in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Dundee will be opening their doors on Christmas Day to provide people who need it most with a Christmas meal plus support, warmth and a "sense of safety and belonging".
The money raised from the itison appeal will go towards providing Christmas dinner with all the trimmings that day, and also on providing meals in 2024.
Festive opening hours for the charity's coffee shop in Aberdeen will be 11am-4pm on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, while in Edinburgh and Glasgow the hours will be 12pm-4pm.
Donations can be made at itison’s website by visiting itison.com/donate.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here