Food & Drink

Eat out, drink up '

Thanks to Streetsmart, restaurants and diners during the festive season can aid the homeless in Edinburgh and Glasgow.

Words: Barry Shelby

he food and drink page of The List may strike

you as an odd place to discuss the needs of

the homeless. But several restaurants in lidinburgh and a clutch in Glasgow are taking small but ground-breaking steps to help alleviate the problem.

They have joined the Streetsmart campaign and have begun to collect a voluntary £1 donation from each table they serve. All proceeds go to local charities involved in helping the homeless.

Streetsmart‘s co-ordinator in Scotland. Whitney Byng. has been moved by both the response from restaurateurs such as Andrew Radford and Martin Wishart as well as by the hard work she has seen by local charities at the coal face. ‘They are not just providing food but also giving jobs and training: trying to get people back on track.‘ she says.

One such local independent charity is Edinburgh

‘Just eat smart, be street smart’ Irvine Welsh

Cyrenians (not religious but nevertheless named after the biblical character who carried Christ’s cross). Its director. Des Ryan. says that some 8().()()() people are effectively homeless in Scotland. That number would fill Murrayfield stadium. While the Cyrenians ‘fully support' the Scottish Executive‘s efforts and the millions spent on the problem. he says homelessness is as bad as it has ever been.

About 70% of the homeless suffer from some form of malnutrition. Cyrenians help feed those without a roof over their head by redistributing fresh food past its supermarket shelf date (but well before its sell-by date): every month some £()().()()() worth.

Streetsmart national co- ordinator Nick Emley notes that restaurants across the UK increasingly seem to recognise that they too can do something: the number to join Streetsmart has increased from 140 last year to 225 in 2001. with a lot of that growth coming in cities such as Edinburgh. Oxford and Brighton. Last year a quarter of a million pounds was donated.

'We will raise some serious money.‘ says Emley. ‘This nation of ordinary people. doing ordinary things. can make a difference.’

Streetsmart partners and sponsors include Barclays Bank. T/It’ List and Bristol‘s Venue magazine. Supporters include US chef and author Tony Bourdain. author Ian Rankin as well as actor Stephen Fry. who says: ‘Streetsmart lets us do a graceful thing. A simple thing. A kind thing.‘ Writer Irvine Welsh is pithy: ‘Just eat smart. be street smart.’

Sadly. Glasgow’s restaurants have not been as willing to get involved this year and Glasgost homeless numbers are worse than the capital‘s. Streetsmart signed up eleven Glaswegian restaurants two years ago. As we go to press. there are now only five. Both limley and Byng are disappointed.

But it is not too late. Byng says: ‘We want people to call up and say: “We want to come on board.”

To join Streetsmart, contact Scotland co- ordinator Whitney Byng at 07939 1321 14 or for further information visit the web site at www.streetsmart.org.uk.

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Side dishes

An extra helping of news . . .

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