Fat Macy’s

Why Fat Macy’s?

This may seem a strange place to start, but a couple of months ago I went for lunch with my family to a restaurant in Shoreditch called Sohaila. It was great, and as far I knew was just another trendy Middle Eastern restaurant in central London.

I did a quick Google when I got back to my office and saw Jay Rayner's review in the Guardian: "Somewhere like Sohaila deserves to flourish. It’s charming, the food is great and at its heart is a noble purpose." With Tithe in mind, I started digging into what this 'noble purpose' was. 

It turns out that the restaurant is a venture from the charity Fat Macy's, which itself sounds more like a trendy restaurant in Shoreditch than a charity. 

Their primary purpose is helping people in temporary accommodation find permanent accommodation, i.e. bringing people out of homelessness. They do this through a combination of culinary and hospitality training and raw cash injections for paying housing deposits. 

Sohaila is a restaurant that they've set up such that their trainees can go directly into a reputable working environment. They also have a catering agency that trainees are able to gain vital work experience in. Not all trainees will go through these two businesses but it's a convenient place to give people a headstart.

Looking at some stats, they've helped provide 5,700 hours of work experience, £11k in grants to move into permanent accommodation, and 64% of trainees have permanent work. Whilst it might seem small in the grand scheme, 8 out of 94 participants have now moved into their own permanent home. This is all since the charity's founding in 2016. You can read more in their annual report here.

It's one of the smaller charities that we've given to but has a very close tie to London. They also only receive about £200k in funding per year, so our money will represent a larger portion of income than it typically would. 

As with Hackney Night Shelter, I'll try and get a quote from someone at Fat Macy's to get a better sense of what our money has contributed to.

Amount Given

£237.77 was the initial donation made to Fat Macy’s. For more information, feel free to reach out to us.