FIVE PILLARS
6. INVESTING IN OUR COMMUNITY
When we talk about our “Community” we think of the groups beyond our offices and our own operations, to those around us and in our wider “coffee” community. We are committed to investing in our community and to making a positive impact. Read more here about the activities and fundraising that we have carried out within the last two years that relate to the communities around us.
Goal Update
Click on each of the below goals to see our progress in 2023 and 2024:
Become a headline corporate sponsor of the Wild Action Fund.
Become a Gold Sponsor of the Native Woodland Trust (Ireland).
200+ hours of conservation volunteering.
Provide employability training to 100+ young people.
Establish 3 local charity partners supported by three employee champions.
Launch 'Cup of Causes' of charitable initiatives. A tiered donation will be put in place for our customer survey, meaning that the more responses we get, the larger the donation.
Our
Ambition
for 2025
- Provide employability training to 50+ young people.
- 50 hours of volunteering.
- Fundraise £2,000 for our chosen charity partners.
We’ve raised £6,669 and donated over £12,500 of stock through our partnerships with local community organisations.
Social Bite Partnership
Social Bite is a movement to end homelessness. A charity and social business, providing homes, jobs and food to support individuals in breaking the cycle of homelessness. Our relationship with Social Bite started in 2023, supplying coffee and products to their sites across the UK. With a shared commitment to social responsibility, we identified an opportunity to launch Social Bite as a brand within Matthew Algie to the Education sector. Every cup of coffee sold under the Social Bite brand at a University campus supports funding for meals, jobs and homes, whilst increasing brand awareness and revenue streams for the charity. It’s been great to see the impact of the partnership so far through Social Bite branded outlets at the University of Strathclyde and University of Glasgow.
As a further commitment to our partnership, Matthew Algie are proud to support Social Bite in a variety of other ways. From donating 1000 cups of coffee, to free food provision services, to getting involved in fundraising challenges including 100-mile cycle, and volunteering at the Edinburgh community village – a supportive space for residents to rebuild independent living. A few employees spent a day volunteering, aimed at enhancing the communal outdoor space and engaging residents including:
- Weeding and Litter picking: Clearing the outdoor communal space of litter and weeds.
- Community Maintenance: Sweeping pathways in the village, raking and adding fresh wood chips to communal areas.
- Restoration of raised beds: Preparing raised garden beds by weeding, raking and adding topsoil to support residents to grow their own vegetables.
Additionally, Matthew Algie donated welcome packs for 25 residents, including tea, coffee, biscuits and hot chocolate to provide comforting essentials for residents in their own hub and additional supply to the communal hub in aid of socialisation.
Katie Dempster, Marketing and Innovation Manager
“Pay It Forward is part of the fabric of Social Bite. Food and drink help people at their most vulnerable and it can lead to other support towards a more stable position in life. It all starts by talking. Matthew Algie’s donation of 1,000 cups of coffee will help hundreds of people across Scotland. Each one offers the possibility of connection and building a relationship that can help someone experiencing homelessness get the support they need. Paying it forward is a small act that can mean a lot and brighten someone’s day. It also plays a big part in our ultimate goal of ending homelessness.”
Mel Swan, Social Bite Commercial and Operations Director
Our Three Local Charity Partners
We are always keen to support charitable causes which our employees care deeply about. To reflect the fact that our employees are spread throughout the UK and we have three offices (in Glasgow, Epsom and Lisburn) we asked employees to nominate charities that they are passionate about and selected three by asking employees to vote for their favourite. Staff in Scotland chose the Teenage Cancer Trust, employees in England and Wales chose The Children’s Trust and staff in Ireland chose NI Chest Heart and Stroke. Fundraising has been taking place throughout the last few years, both at work and personally, with staff taking part in the Great Scottish Run, raffles and quizzes, to raise money. To encourage employees to get involved in fundraising for them we relaunched our company matched-giving scheme, allowing employees to claim back the entry fees for fundraising events and matching the amount raised for charity in a further donation up to the value of £250. As part of our Christmas Fundraising in 2024, we ran a 'Duvet Day Raffle' auctioning off a day of annual leave, and held a 'Jolly Jumper Day' where employees were encourage to donate and wear a Christmas Jumper to work. Overall, we have raised £3,554 for our three local charity partners and we hope to build on this in 2025.
“Chest Heart and Stroke NI was chosen as our charity in Northern Ireland in memory of our colleague Nina Jackson, who sadly passed away in 2023, and as this year closes, we still have fond memories of her time with us. It is therefore appropriate for our team to support this very worthwhile cause and one that is close to all our hearts here in Ireland.”
Paul Hamilton, Office Manager at Matthew Algie Ireland Ltd
Donation of Short Shelf-Life Products
We donate any stock from our warehouse that is no longer needed to local food banks and community centres. It is important that any food or drink is available to those in our community who may need it, rather than it being disposed of. These charities are based across Glasgow and support the homeless, young people and give help to people in communities that need it. In 2023 and 2024 we have donated over £12,500 worth of stock to these charity partners.
Macmillan Coffee Morning
Every year, we hold a bake sale as part of the national Macmillan Coffee Morning campaign. Along with a bake sale, we also hosted a raffle, which included prizes that have been donated by suppliers and a competition guessing the weight of a jar filled with green coffee beans. In 2023 we raised £1,744.74 across our three sites, and in 2024, we raised £1,370.63, with the overall total for the last two years at £3,115.37!
I’ve been hosting coffee mornings for quite a few years now. It is something I am passionate about. I have lost close family members to cancer and having the support of Macmillan to help us through makes all the difference. We know it’s not just about raising money and hitting fundraising targets; hosting coffee mornings is a great way to bring people together for a slice of something nice. Our support means Macmillan can continue to be there for people living with cancer."
Debbie Johnston, Service Delivery Manager
We’ve donated £22,500 to our charity partners to enable conservation in wild places in Scotland and Ireland. Closer to home we’ve been volunteering our time to keep our neighbourhood clean and green.
Litter Picking
Our Glasgow office is a ‘Litter Picking Hub’, an initiative set up by Glasgow City Council to help keep Glasgow cleaner. Members of the community are able to come and collect equipment to host group litter picking in our local area. To complement this, we have also been hosting our own ‘Litter Picking Mornings’, where staff from throughout the business are able to come and donate 15 minutes of their time to help keep the area around our office and roastery clean. In 2024, we were able to total 30 hours to this cause.
Oatlands Gate Community Allotment
We have developed a relationship with Oatlands Gate Community Allotment, a five-minute walk from our Glasgow site. In 2023, they kindly donated two planters for our office reception and we regularly help in their community initiatives. The Oatlands Allotment allows people who do not have a garden to have an outdoor space for growing, and Glasgow City Council supports local primary schools and nurseries, teaching children where fruit and vegetables come from and encouraging them to grow their own vegetables in designated plots. In 2024, Eduarda Cristovam, Director of Coffee, Quality and Sustainability, was the judge of their autumn ‘Wonky Vegetable Competition’. Categories included ‘The Largest Onion’ and ‘The Wonkiest Vegetable’, and we were pleased to donate the prizes for the winners. As we head into 2025, we hope to develop this relationship, further supporting their activities through employee volunteering.
We’re continuing to offer barista training, student placements and apprenticeships to inspire the next generation to get into coffee.
Barnardo's Coffee Schools
Throughout 2023 and 2024, we have hosted groups of young people from Barnardo’s in our barista training lab at our Glasgow site. Our barista trainers volunteer their time to help train young people in our local community, teaching them how to use coffee machines, and how to make a variety of different drinks, from flat whites to cappuccinos. These courses give young people an understanding of the skill that goes into preparing coffees in a café or hospitality venue and would give them a head-start if they were looking for employment in a relevant setting. In 2023 and 2024 we delivered the training to 15 young people.
Student Placements
We are proud to work closely with Glasgow Caledonian University and Abertay University to provide placement opportunities in their Food Bioscience and Food Science degrees, respectively. Students apply to join us for 10-12 weeks and get to experience working for a food business firsthand. Students must write a logbook and produce a presentation about their placement for when they go back to university. Students are able to work in the lab, testing roasted and green coffee, setting up coffee tastings, learning about internal audits, and much more. These placements are a brilliant opportunity to experience a working environment, and we are pleased that we are able to facilitate them. Most students aren't sure what role they want to pursue when they leave university and having a placement can help them to choose an area they will enjoy. Some students love a factory setting - which is often very lively, with a variety of different areas from product testing, to writing specifications and audits - whereas others realise they prefer a more scientific role in a in a Food Science lab. Matthew Algie offers a unique opportunity of having both a lab and factory setting, which allows the students to get a better insight to which direction they want to take. In 2023 and 2024, we had 4 students carry out a placement with us. Previously we have had the pleasure of offering two of our students jobs within our QA department!
Louise Wyllie, QA Manager