Christmas for us is mainly based around eating and drinking, be it at home or in and around Brixton – booze and food is a must. Therefore it’s great to hear that some local restaurants in the area have signed up to StreetSmart for this festive season, all to raise money for the wonderful local charity Brixton Soup Kitchen.
StreetSmart is an annual restaurant campaign that fundraises for homeless people by adding a voluntary £1 to the diners’ bill at the eateries who have signed up.
With Brixton, and the surrounding boroughs of Wandsworth, Lambeth and Croydon, recently ranking in the top twenty areas across the country with the highest rates of homelessness it is great to see the restaurant community coming together to highlight and raise money to combat this problem and improve the lives of our neighbours. It is estimated that over 300,000 people are currently homeless across the UK, with London boroughs at the forefront of this increase.
Those restaurants taking part include:
- Salon
- MEATliquor (the recently revamped CHICKENLiquor)
- Champagne & Fromage
- Upstairs
- Elm Park Tavern
- Llewelyn’s (Herne Hill)
- Platform 1 (East Dulwich)
- Franklins (East Dulwich)
- The Palmerston (East Dulwich)
- The Rosendale (East Dulwich)
Dr. Mahamed Hashi, who founded the Brixton Soup Kitchen alongside Solomon Smith, said:
“27% of the local people are living below the poverty line – that’s 83,700 people. One in three kids here are born into poverty. We have the highest rates of youth violence and [ill] mental health in all of Western Europe – so much negativity.” However, there is a silver lining, Hashi added: “StreetSmart is a positive way to support the community. We’ve built such strong relationships with local restaurants like Salon who have helped us since the beginning.”
The campaign will run from 1 November 1 to 31 December, full a full list of participating restaurants, visit: http://streetsmart.org.uk/restaurants/ or @StreetSmartUK
EATINBRIXTON 