The mission of this appeal is to raise enough funds to distribute 250,000 meals and essential items in Scotland and throughout the UK.

Social Bite is raising funds to provide Christmas dinners and emergency food packs, as well as gifts and essential items from warm clothing for rough sleepers to toys for children in homeless accommodation to open on Christmas Day. it also hopes to raise funds to help provide emergency shelter and support for those without a roof over their head during the winter months.

The charity is also fundraising to provide dedicated support for rough sleepers in emergency hotel accommodation for one month from December 25th - January 25th in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Any extra funds raised will be invested in long-term employment and housing projects to really break the cycle of homelessness.

Josh Littlejohn, Social Bite CEO, said: “Christmas is going to be strange this year for all of us. But for homeless people and families, the pandemic has made their situation particularly desperate. Thousands of people in Scotland and all over the UK will spend Christmas on the streets – cold, hungry and lonely, without a family to go to. Thousands of children will find themselves in temporary emergency accommodation or without food on the table over the festive period.

“Despite the huge challenges faced by businesses over the last few months, hundreds of organisations came forward to support Social Bite’s Covid-19 emergency relief efforts. This enabled us to produce and distribute a massive 813,000 food packs and essential items since the pandemic began in mid-March. This Christmas, we want to build on this – and to do so we are launching our Festival of Kindness appeal.”

This year, Social Bite will also be installing a 10-metre Christmas Tree in the city centre of Edinburgh (St Andrews Square) and a similar tree in Glasgow (Vinicombe Street).

If you or your family would like to get involved, you can bring a physical gift to donate to someone who is homeless and vulnerable and place it under the tree. We will then distribute tens of thousands of gifts and essential items to homeless people, families, and children in poverty.

You can see the gift wish list and donation times here.

You can also choose to fundraise for Festival of Kindness by visiting the website.