About Us. Our Impact.
This page outlines what we’ve achieved since 2020 and suggests ways you can help us do more.
Over the last three years the hospitality sector has faced unprecedented challenges. It was amongst the hardest hit by the pandemic, and the subsequent supply-chain shocks and cost-of-living crisis are fuelling a collapse in the viability of countless hospitality businesses. Many continue to fail, placing even more livelihoods at risk.
We have thrown our arms around an industry sector in turmoil providing emotional support to over 200,000 workers via our Grant giving, Employee Assistance Programme, Advisory Services, Helplines and Golden Friends retiree outreach scheme.
We continue to lead the way in financial, practical and emotional support to some of the most vulnerable people in society.
Our constantly evolving service provision has been possible thanks to award-winning innovation in fundraising.
Since the start of 2020...
How we’ve helped.
Hospitality Action has a strong heritage supporting our sector, so we were well-placed to quickly mobilise in response to Covid-19 and react to the subsequent shocks the hospitality industry has endured.
We help hospitality people by providing financial support and advice to those in extreme poverty or those who are dealing with physical or mental health conditions. Since the start of 2020, we have spent some £3,000,000 and awarded more than 10,000 grants to hospitality households across the UK.
Alongside our grant making activities, we provide advice, mental health support and signposting to the whole hospitality workforce via an online advice hub and 24-hour helpline. Since 2020 we have answered 26,809 calls to our helpline and delivered 6753 counselling sessions.
Our Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is the gold standard in employee care, providing comprehensive wraparound support with access to counsellors and experts in areas such as parenting, legal matters and debt management. Developed specifically for the industry, the scheme also features specific managerial resources and trauma support in the event of a critical incident. Our EAP currently protects more than 185,000 employees and their families.
More than 2,000 older beneficiaries have membership of our Golden Friends scheme, a befriending and contact scheme designed to keep loneliness and isolation at bay. Members benefit from a dedicated helpline, and receive birthday and Christmas cards plus quarterly newsletters designed to help them get the best out of life and to stay connected to the industry.
A focus on 2022.
The grim reality of the cost-of-living crisis became apparent with a 54% increase in applications to our hardship grants scheme, compared to 2021 levels.
25% of all grants awarded were focused on supporting people at a very high risk of homelessness or those who had already lost their homes and needed a financial grant to move into new accommodation.
We assisted 175 households with priority arrears preventing eviction, court action or debt collection fees.
Of the 2480 grants awarded there were 392 children in permanent residence in the households receiving support, and many more in shared custody arrangements, indirectly benefiting from our support.
Children in households where grants have been provided.
2023 outlook.
The first quarter of 2023 saw a 12% increase in applications received compared to the corresponding period in 2022, and a 67% increase on the same period in 2021.
In addition to the high volume, we are also seeing a significant increase in complex, priority applications, with unprecedented demand for support with household arrears, impending evictions and homelessness.
As evictions soar, applications for support towards rehousing costs have been a concerning feature, with awards in January and February already reaching 35% of the total number of grants for this purpose approved in 2022.
We expect pressure on household budgets to increase further throughout 2023. Sadly we also anticipate more family breakdowns, domestic abuse, homelessness, addiction and bankruptcy cases as the year progresses.
Your support is needed today, just as much as it was in the early days of the pandemic.
Total number of rehousing grants in 2022.
Impact Statistics.
Primary reason for application.
2020-22 grants breakdown by age.
2020-22 grants awarded by region.
Financial support.
Key to our success in responding to the events of the last three years has been our ability to quickly evolve our grants service and introduce flexible and targeted packages of support in a rapidly changing environment. The shifting economic landscape, Covid-19, war in Europe, an unpredictable labour market, and the cost-of-living crisis have all contributed to rising debt and deteriorating mental health for our beneficiaries which required a variety of responses.
Highlights include:
Emergency Fund Grants. In the first days of the pandemic thousands lost their livelihood overnight as businesses closed, we issued 2011 grants totalling £502,000 in just 10 days. This evolved to become our Covid Recovery Grant which has been awarded 640 times since, with a value of £180,000.
Meet the Gap and Family/Household Support Grants. The gap between the state support available and what people need just to get by has greatly increased over the last three years, especially for those with school-age children or for households dealing with long term illness. We have awarded 2370 grants totalling £650,690 to help families and people living on their own to meet the rising costs of accommodation, food, clothing and fuel.
Cost-of-living Grants. In winter 2022 inflation reached a 40 year high so we introduced top up payments to existing beneficiaries to cover the sudden surge in heating and food costs. 309 grants awarded £58,150.
Family days in/out. In the most extreme cases where a family member is critically ill, a small grant to provide some respite and allow a family some normality, such as a takeaway and a movie night, can make all the difference. We were unable to award our normal Family Days Out due to pandemic restrictions, so we switched it up and offered Family Days In instead. Thanks to our support close to 200 families shared happy memories in 2021 and 2022.
How we fundraise.
At Hospitality Action we receive no government funding, so every penny spent on our beneficiaries must be earned. We’re lucky to work in partnership with hundreds of operators, suppliers, institutional funders, and individuals who want to recognise the joy hospitality brings to their lives and want to support it in hard times.
Everything we do is co-created with our partners, fulfilling their ESG objectives and driving their brand awareness while supporting our work.
Since 2020, our annual virtual challenge has become a firm fixture in the hospitality calendar raising over £500,000. Last year we celebrated the return of hospitality on our global Back In Business Tour. Just under 2,000 participants helped us circle the planet, travelling over 65,000 miles. In 2023 we’re challenging the sector to raise £150,000 in just 11 days during our Summer Challenge.
When face-to-face events returned in 2022 our Back to the Floor gala broke every fundraising record raising more than £250,000. We now run a packed calendar with exclusive chef dinners, gala balls and polo days throughout the UK.
We even created a national day! Each September on National Hospitality Day, we encourage you to celebrate the places you love and donate to the four charities we share the day with.
Walk for Wellbeing in partnership with talent partner mum, is a fun, flexible 20km sponsored walk and is a true testament to the spirit of hospitality at a time when mental health within the industry is at breaking point. 400 participants took part in 2022 and raised over £90,000.
Fundraising campaigns.
In a rapidly changing world we got creative and came up with some award-winning fundraising innovations. Merchandise has been sold, beers have been brewed, knives forged, and gins distilled in our honour. In 2022 “Stella Please” raised over £150,000 while thousands of people donated to Hospitality Action when they purchased tickets to Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park. Everything we do is co-created with our partners, fulfilling their ESG objectives and driving their brand awareness while supporting our work.
Our “Chefs at Home” cookbook features over 100 lockdown inspired recipes from mega star chefs. It topped international best seller lists and is proudly displayed in kitchens across the UK.
0% Fat, 100% Charity. Invisible Chips are an award-winning delicacy available on menus across the land. Who knew buying a portion of nothing could change everything for hospitality people in crisis?
In 2022 we teamed up with Stella Artois to ask the nation to remember their P's and Q's by ordering a 'Stella Please'. For every pint ordered politely Stella donated £1 to Hospitality Action. Over the course of the summer 150,000 consumers said please, and we said a very big thank you!
Institutional fundraising.
We work closely with Corporate Trusts, Worshipful Companies, private individuals and wealth managers to create bespoke funding opportunities for targeted support to a particular remit or beneficiary cohort.
We provide detailed case studies on how funds are deployed communicating with stakeholders across multi-year projects to ensure transparency and demonstrate impact.
We’re proud of our notable long-standing partnerships with organisations including The Savoy Educational Trust, the Worshipful Company of Innholders, the Worshipful Company of Vintners and the Worshipful Company of Cooks.
Download our impact report social videos here.
Download assetsDownload our latest impact report here.
Download PDFRecent Case Studies.
Poppy's Story.
A comfy bed, curtains at the window to shut out the night time, a feeling of safety and the chance to dream of a better tomorrow. These are all things we take for granted.
For Poppy, her mum and her little brother life was already tough, then the pandemic struck. Poppy’s family is one of the thousands we helped during the crisis with a modest grant to help cover the basics that we all need in life to feel safe and secure.
Rochelle’s Story.
In normal times, we help people through physical and mental health issues, poverty, addiction, relationship breakdown, domestic abuse, bereavement and all the other challenges that can affect us all. But of course, these are not normal times.
Parents are having to choose between feeding their children and heating their homes. For some, the bailiffs are already at the door. The pressure of poverty is relentless and has a ruinous effect on mental health as families are slowly engulfed by mounting costs and spiralling debt. For single mums like Rochelle, the mounting pressure can be too much.