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Posted by Sarah Brown on 04 Feb '16

Working together to change the world

An inspirational story of a business with strong values helping the homeless and in part an example of how collaboration particularly between sectors can create success for all and help change the world,

Business and charity collaborating

On Saturday morning last week I was listening to the local radio, really by chance, when I heard an inspirational story. It illustrates how working with charities can help businesses and the people that charities support. The collaboration works for the business and the charity as they help change the world but also sell more meals. It fits with their values as Nourish, based in Sheffield and Leeds, was set up to make a difference in the world, to start with just around its sites but they hope to spread their healthy eating and positive attitude further afield and really make a difference.

We've got a good heart, a great team and we want to keep helping others. We know our customers enjoy the ideals and ethos around Nourish, we appreciate the feedback and we're always looking for ways to involve ourselves with community projects or just support others already doing a great job, we try to ensure everything we do reflects that from the staff we take on to the suppliers we work with.

www.nourishrestaurants.co.uk

In both their locations they have a Pay it Forward Tree concept. Customers can simply pay for a meal and they log it in a book. They have regulars who come to both stores for a meal from the tree/book and a hot drink each week and they also have regular customers who pay for an extra meal very often. They have extended this to their Loyalty Card

Here is how they explain it:

"We understand that loyal customers should benefit for being a loyal customer, it's only right that loyalty is rewarded, after all it keeps our staff paid, suppliers happy and our business growing, but we wanted our Loyalty Card to be more than just a free drink or discount off a meal, we wanted that loyal relationship to reach further than benefitting just the paying customer and Nourish so we've come up with a loyalty card that offers the following:

After spending over £5 five times a free hot drink goes on our 'Pay it Forward Tree'
After spending over £5 ten times the customer will receive a 50% discount from the 11th meal, on top of this however we will also put a meal on our 'Pay it Forward Tree' for someone less fortunate to call in and claim.

As a company we understand that what we're offering now will 'cost' us more financially, by effectively giving away 1.5 meals plus a drink after 10 stamps, but to us we feel it is a positive step in helping others to engage with those who rally need the support and warmth a hot meal can provide. Customers will still be able to pay for a meal to go on our tree too but this way the work we're doing with local charities will mean there will likely always be a meal on the tree."

Critical to their success is their collaboration with local homeless charities, which helps them identify people in need and achieve their aims while growing their business.

Nourish are a real example of Winning by being good, and following the principles of the Responsible Organisation Charter(c). (Sadly searching in 2022 it appears these restaurants are no longer around)

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