Cargo publishing Social Bite Cookbook

Social Bite is, as the name suggests, a social enterprise: a chain of cafes selling soups and sandwiches, whose profits are given entirely to charitable causes. With two outlets apiece in Glasgow and Edinburgh, the business currently invests in Shelter Scotland, the Vision Eye Care Hospital in Bangladesh, the MicroLoan Foundation in Malawi and Zambia, and the STV Appeal. One in four of its staff are from homeless backgrounds and customers can ‘suspend’ coffee and food – pay for a meal that can later be given to a homeless person.

You may also remember it from the overwhelming success of last year’s Christmas lunch appeal, which allowed members of the public to buy a Christmas Day meal for a homeless person for £5 through discount deals website itison, and raised enough money to feed 36,000. It later ran another itison deal, once again taking £5 donations, for a chance to win a dinner in Edinburgh with George Clooney, all profits again going to fight homelessness. It’s pretty solid as a business, ethically speaking, is the point.

And now, the company is publishing a book of recipes through Scottish indie Cargo. Announced this week, The Social Bite Cookbook features meal ideas from the chain’s head chef, Michael Thomas, and five of his formerly homeless apprentices. The book promises ‘recipes for real life: lunches to go, one pot dinners, five ingredients or fewer’, which can be made for £5 or less. It will also include ‘inspirational stories, detailing how the men have transformed their lives and showing the truth of homelessness.’

The book is due for release in September. In keeping with the company’s ethos, 50% of profits from its sales will go towards helping the homeless.

 

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