Social Bite

Who we are

Social Bite is a charity and social enterprise working to end homelessness in Scotland and beyond.Our vision is for a Scotland where everyone has a safe place to call home.   Our pioneering projects enable people affected by homelessness to transform their own lives.   

It all began with a small sandwich shop in Edinburgh and Social Bite now employs 72 people - a third of whom have been affected by homelessness - and 100 volunteers across seven shops, a restaurant and a corporate catering business.  We give out over 140,000 items of free food to those experiencing homelessness and food poverty each year and connect 550 vulnerable people each week with good meals, support and opportunities.   Social Bite's profile soared when George Clooney visited in 2015, since followed by the likes of Leonardo Di Caprio, Harry and Meghan and The Duchess of Cambridge.   
The money we’ve raised through our social enterprise and fundraising events and campaigns has  funded ground-breaking projects that are breaking the cycle of homelessness; pioneered in Scotland but in the process of being replicated beyond.  These include:

• The Social Bite Academy: supported employment, skills training and volunteering opportunities for people affected by homelessness, helping people to transform their own lives.

• The Village:  prefabricated wooden houses with gardens and a community hub, built on vacant land - offering a home to vulnerable homeless people for 12-18 months, during which time they are provided with extensive support in a community environment where they learn new skills and ultimately transition to independent living.

• The UK's largest Housing First project: bringing 830 street sleepers off the streets of Edinburgh into long-term accommodation with wrap-around support to ensure sustained tenancy, stimulating government support to fundamentally shift the structural response to homelessness. 

Through The World's Big Sleep Out in December 2019, we raised $10m for a collaboration of charities tackling homelessness and displacement in cities and countries across the globe.  On 20th March 2020, in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, we repurposed our team and kitchen to start producing free lunch bags, meals and essentials packs for people experiencing homelessness and food poverty and we are currently distributing 6,500 per day (over 300,000 in total so far) through 99 charity partners and community groups across Scotland.

We are proud to be a living wage employer for Social Bite Fund and Social Bite Limited and to be recognised as a Supported Business.