Industry celebrates Only A Pavement Away success

Only A Pavement Away, the charity aiding prison leavers, veterans and those facing homelessness back into employment in the hospitality industry, has reported great success for its latest campaign, which is providing vital support to those in need this winter.

The Hospitality Against Homelessness campaign, which has been designed to raise awareness and funding, launched on World Homeless Day in October. It encourages operators, individual donors and partner organisations to support the charity in different ways, including helping to fund the charity’s Member Stability Grants Scheme – a payment of up to £1,500 given during the first 12 months of starting employment within the sector, to provide short-term financial support, stability and independence to any member struggling with adjusting or reintegrating back into society.  

To date, the campaign has raised over £22,000 through independent fundraising initiatives with partner organisations. The Hospitality Against Homelessness campaign will continue into early 2023.

Partner organisations that have contributed through dedicated fundraising initiatives include:

• CAPCO, which has supported the charity through its annual Covent Garden Christmas Auction
• Brewdog, which is encouraging customers at its ‘Doghouse Manchester’ venue to donate to the charity when they order from a new winter food menu
• Pho, which has created a festive chocolate orange martini with 50p from every cocktail sold going straight to the charity
• Speciality Brands, Café Pacifico and Ilegal Mezcal which, collectively, have created the ‘Love Thy Neighbour' campaign, and will see £2 from the sales of every La Monita cocktail go to the charity
• The Blacklock team who completed a 5K Santa Run with all funds raised going to the campaign

In umbrella activations, 17 hospitality leaders – including Martin Williams (CEO, M Restaurants & Gaucho), Andy Hornby (CEO, The Restaurant Group) and Steve Alton (CEO, BII)  – took on the CEO Sleepout at Lord’s Cricket Ground in November, alongside charity founder, Greg Mangham. The intrepid crew slept outside overnight to raise over £33,000, an impressive contribution to the final total of £200K raised for homeless charities, including Only A Pavement Away.

Only A Pavement Away’s National Winter Warmth Week (14th – 20th November) encouraged vital donations of warm clothing and toiletries for rough sleepers, which were then distributed by 27 participating hospitality operators including, Gaucho Group, Mr Yum, Big Hug Brewing, Sisban, Pub Love, IHG, The Ivy Collection, Bee Recruitment and Zonal. 500 bags in total were collected and distributed to local homeless charities across London, Edinburgh, Cambridge, Norfolk, Brighton, Manchester, Birmingham, Oxford, Glasgow, and Cardiff. The support for this initiative from the sector was inspiring and it will continue into the new year with Craft Union running collections across their entire estate between January and March 2023.

Mangham comments: "We’re delighted with the success we’ve seen with the Hospitality Against Homelessness campaign – our biggest and best campaign to date! We’d like to extend a big thank you to all the individuals and businesses who have taken part – it’s a real testament to our fantastic industry.

"The monies raised will help to ensure that the members of our charity can be fully supported with all the guidance and financial aid they need to ensure a stable pathway to successful and ongoing employment."

Only A Pavement Away’s employment programme works in partnership with hospitality employers, referral charity partners and individuals who have experienced or are facing homelessness, prison leavers and veterans. It facilitates training and development as well as offering additional financial support to those who need it to overcome any barriers to employment, to help them back into work and in doing so, help to tackle some of the staffing and skills shortages within the hospitality sector.

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