Social Bite – the social enterprise chain of sandwich shops – has shaken up the concept of collecting store points by launching the first ever selfless loyalty cards which lets customers feed the homeless.
The not-for-profit business dreamt up the idea of the new scheme after many of its charitable clientele suggested they wanted to donate their freebies to the less fortunate instead of keeping them for themselves.
The company has now introduced a card which allows Social Bite patrons to pay forward their loyalty points to buy a homeless person a free meal and hot drink after ten visits to Social Bite.
After five visits to the café chain customers will also get a half price coffee or lunch for themselves.
The sandwich and coffee shop chain previously gave out more traditional loyalty cards where after five visits customers would get a free coffee and after ten a half price lunch.
But the company decided to reinvent the Social Bite loyalty card when cafe regulars started to refuse their rewards and ask for the food and drink to be donated to the homeless.
Founder of Social Bite, Josh Littlejohn, said: “We had a lot of customers wondering if they could give their free coffees and discounted lunches to the homeless instead of keeping them for themselves.
“We’ve realised there is a real culture of people wanting to help people less fortunate than themselves – and if they can do that in their daily routines it’s a real bonus.
“This is the next step in making sure no homeless people go hungry and we hope other businesses will follow suit.”
Social Bite operates a ‘suspended’ coffee and food programme whereby customers can pay for a hot drink or food for a homeless person.
The business ploughs 100% of profits into charity and where a quarter of its workforce is formerly homeless.
The business donates profits into charities including Shelter Scotland, Vision Eye Care Hospital in Bangladesh, the MicroLoan Foundation in Malawi and Zambia and the STV Appeal.
Social Bite currently has cafes in Edinburgh, Glasgow and opened an Aberdeen store in September.
Customers also have the chance to win dinner with Hollywood star and humanitarian George Clooney who visits the shop in November.
• For more information visit http://www.social-bite.co.uk.
