Rich Leigh & Company partners with Foodinate to tackle food poverty

Consumer PR agency Rich Leigh & Company is providing pro bono PR support for new social enterprise Foodinate, which provides free meals to the homeless by working with local restaurants.

Foodinate is a social enterprise designed to make a reduction in UK food poverty “as easy as dining at your favourite restaurants”.

Every ‘Foodinate’ branded meal sold results in a meal for a local person in need. A participating restaurant agrees to cover the cost of the donated meal when a customer orders a meal from its menu that’s been marked with a Foodinate sticker.

Foodinate has partnered with several food outlets in Manchester, including George’s Dining Room and Bar, owned by Ryan Giggs, to deliver the scheme that lets restaurants choose at least three meals to brand as a ‘Foodinate’ option on its menus.

Foodinate then matches each restaurant with a food-giving charity in the same area, so the meals funded by each restaurant are served to people in need in the same community.

Rich Leigh & Company’s Manchester office, led by Emily Urban-Smith, will provide pro-bono PR support for Foodinate through social media support, brand strategy, media relations and creative campaigns.

The work follows a four-week trial, which generated 1020 meals for local homeless people.

Caroline Stevenson, founder of Foodinate, said: “I hoped to work with a PR agency that has experience in both charity and food PR, but as a new social enterprise with an incredibly limited budget, knew that was a big ask.

“As soon as I was introduced to Rich Leigh & Company though, their experience and excitement for the idea shone through and, on hearing the agency’s commitment to providing pro-bono support for one charity partner in each office, was so happy when they said they’d like to help Foodinate.”

Urban-Smith added: “I think Foodinate is going to be a huge success. It offers a quick and easy way for dining businesses and the public to support a cause and, frankly, is a win-win for everybody involved, from the restaurants through to the homeless communities it benefits.

“Of course, our time is limited, but even at this early stage in the agency’s life, we want to support and help charities that help communities at a local level. It just so happens that Foodinate has the potential to do that, but in an incredibly scalable way and we’re proud to be partnering with them to help.”