Restaurants the length and breadth of Britain raised £1.17 million last winter to help tackle homelessness through inviting diners to add a voluntary £1 per table to their bill.
With rough sleeping reaching its highest recorded level – 4,793 people were recorded sleeping rough on a single night in 2025 – more than 650 restaurants joined the annual campaign run by StreetSmart, which has raised more than £16 million since 1998.
Chef Jun Tanaka of Fitzrovia restaurant The Ninth said: “Hospitality is about caring for people. Supporting StreetSmart allows us to extend that care beyond our restaurants and help vulnerable people in our communities.”
Speaking at an event hosted by restaurant Toklas, Sunaina Sethi of JKS Restaurants added: “The StreetSmart community represents the hospitality sector at its very best — generous and inclusive. What makes this campaign so powerful is its simplicity. Small contributions from diners, multiplied across hundreds of restaurants, create real impact.”
StreetSmart supports projects helping people experiencing homelessness in 22 cities and regions in the UK, ensuring that every pound raised in each city stays local, supporting frontline organisations that provide long-term pathways out of homelessness — including housing, training and employment support — with a particular focus on young people aged 16–25.
This year, the property industry’s charity LandAid pledged an additional £175,000 contribution, further increasing the impact of this year’s fundraising.
