Homeless Delivery

Strategy

The strategy rested on the insight that people would order food for themselves in huge numbers. Instead of a traditional fundraising appeal, the team flipped the model. What if the mechanic of food delivery could become the solution?

Data identified a perfect partner, Just Eat; big enough for scale, with genuine CSR efforts to care. It listed Soup Kitchen London as a restaurant. When its algorithm served London-centric content to customers, they’d also see The Soup Kitchen. Then, as well as a pizza for themselves, customers could ‘order’ a warm Christmas dinner, toiletries, winter clothing or mental health support for others.

Donation options were priced like food items, designed for intuitive giving. Real-time data insights allowed the team to optimise and simplify the journey, creating receipts that became assets - emotionally resonant and visually distinct. This was a cultural strategy disguised as a donation mechanic, seamlessly embedded into platform behaviour.

Creativity

Instead of telling people about homelessness, they interacted with it directly, through the familiar mechanic of a food order. The creative leap came in how the story was told. Every donation generated a receipt, with order notes reflecting real human experiences, drawn from the work of Soup Kitchen London. These became the core creative device e.g. '1x Christmas dinner. First one since Dad kicked them out.’

These stark, haunting notes were printed on delivery receipts and shared across the campaign. OOH ran on London Underground and streets around the Soup Kitchen; social posts were built on asset templates for easy resharing.

Turning empathy into action, the campaign didn't tell people to care - they felt it in one line of copy, on one receipt, in one click.

Results

Soup Kitchen succeeded in having 29,054 hot meals funded. Support extended to mental health services, toiletries and winter clothing. A participant survey revealed 87% said it was a ‘smart and easy way to help’; 73% said it made them think differently about homelessness; 66% said they’re more likely to support homelessness charities again. There were more than eight million organic social impressions, and £103k in earned media value.

Contributors

Just Eat, The Cooperage, Bountiful Cow, Canopy Media, Build Hollywood, UndercoverArts