A social enterprise is calling on Greater Manchester eateries to donate a plate.
Foodinate.co.uk, which aims to create a sustainable impact on food poverty, is asking restaurant owners to offer a meal-for-a-meal deal to help the homeless.
Basically, when a customer chooses a meal marked with the Foodinate logo from a participating restaurant’s menu, a plate of hot food is served up to a homeless visitor at the city’s Booth Centre.
The cost of the donated meal is covered by the restaurant.
To date, the not-for-profit organisation’s scheme has been backed by George’s Dining Room and Bar in Worsley – owned by Ryan Giggs, Cocoa Cabana in West Didsbury and Well Hung, based in The Kitchens at Spinningfields.
But the company is keen for many more local food establishments to join their venture.
So far, 8,000 hot meals have been provided to people across the city.
Founder of the scheme, Caroline Stevenson, who won the RBS and Entrepreneurial Spark 2016 ‘Boost a Business award’ – and the chance to meet Leonardo DiCaprio – acknowledged the need for her venture, after seeing people begging on the streets in the UK – the world’s seventh richest country.
She said: “Homelessness is still a major problem in Manchester so I wanted to create a sustainable impact on this issue and that’s exactly what Foodinate aims to do.
“All restaurants need to do is choose a few options from their menu to include in the campaign, which are signposted by our small menu icon, to support us in our quest.”
Restaurants who sign up to the initiative, can expect to attract new customers, boost their customer loyalty and increase their higher-margin sales.
Ryan Giggs said: “Foodinate has been a success. We really liked the simplicity of the concept from the outset and we are proud to be one of the first restaurants to sign-up to it.
“If you own a restaurant and you’re wondering what you can do to help your communities – this would be a great way to help.”
The public have been showing support for restaurants backing the campaign. Helen Turner from Bolton said: “It’s such a great idea – I hope some of the bigger chains sign up to this!” while Jamie Driver from London commented: “They’ve clearly found a solution to assist in reducing food poverty whilst bringing a commercial advantage to businesses.”
Any businesses interested in signing up to the Foodinate campaign, can contact [email protected] for more information.
