Fundraiser Aiming to Provide Over 100,000 Meals to Homeless People Launches
itison launch Christmas fundraiser with Changing Lives and Social Bite, donate £5 to buy a meal for the homeless…
Online marketing company itison, will launch a major fundraising campaign with Changing Lives tomorrow, Thursday 10th December, inviting people to donate £5 to buy a Christmas dinner for a homeless person in Newcastle.
The annual Christmas fundraiser is a phenomenon in Scotland where itison is based. They have been partnering with social enterprise Social Bite since 2014 to tackle homelessness and have raised over £2.6 million and donated over 500,000 meals to those who need it most.
For the third year in a row in Newcastle, they’re asking big hearted members to donate £5 at www.itison.com/donate to buy Christmas dinner for a homeless person or a Christmas gift for families and individuals hard-hit by the Covid-19 crisis.
The global pandemic means thousands of families and homeless people continue to fall through the gaps of support and are struggling. itison’s £5 fundraiser in partnership with Changing Lives will ensure that homeless people, individuals and families in Newcastle can enjoy a hot meal and a gift this Christmas.
Oli Norman, CEO at itison said: “In Scotland we’ve come together and are genuinely on a path to eradicate homelessness – all stemming from one small idea that took off and captured people’s imaginations, we’re delighted to be bringing that to Newcastle.
“Tomorrow, we need your help more than ever. No one has been harder hit by the global pandemic than the most vulnerable in our society. By donating £5 you’ll be making sure vulnerable families and homeless people have somewhere to go and a present to open this Christmas after what’s been an incredibly hard year.”
Josh Littlejohn, Co-founder of Social Bite said: “In 2014 we started working with itison on our annual fundraiser, with a target of 800 Christmas dinners. We ended up receiving over 32,000 donations meaning we could feed homeless people across Scotland for the whole year.
“We wanted to take what we’d learnt and help tackle the nationwide issue of homelessness together. We’re delighted to be working with Changing Lives again to help them provide Christmas dinners across Newcastle. We hope that this year especially, everyone will get behind the campaign, share it with all your friends and help the people who need it the very most this year.”
Social Bite have revolutionised the fight against homelessness with an aim to end homelessness for good in Scotland within 5 years. Rather than a ‘sticky plaster’ fix they provide a structured, holistic approach to the issue, providing employment, support and now innovative housing - through the new Social Bite village - to help people transition from homelessness back in to society.
By partnering with Changing Lives, Social Bite will be sharing their expertise, networks and insights to help tackle the nationwide issue of homelessness together.
One hundred percent of donations made in the Newcastle area will go via Social Bite to Changing Lives who will be providing hot meals across the city this Christmas. Any surplus funds raised in Newcastle will go towards providing hot meals throughout 2021.
To donate £5 to buy a Christmas dinner for a homeless person or give a Christmas gift for children, families and vulnerable individuals visit www.itison.com/donate tomorrow, Thursday 10th December from 7.30am (it makes a great Secret Santa gift or stocking filler too!)
Named in the Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For list last year, itison has over 1.5m members across Scotland, Newcastle and Manchester who receive daily emails featuring brilliant, handpicked deals from premium brands, venues and events.
