Did you know that for £10, you can put a hot vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner in front of a Londoner who has nowhere to call home?
For me, Christmas is all about the joy of sitting down and enjoying a meal together. But it’s also a time to think of others and lend a hand to those who are having a harder time. For thousands of people in London, there will be no table this Christmas. That’s why I’m supporting Single Homeless Project‘s Christmas dinner appeal, and why I hope you’ll join me. A shared meal is one of the simplest, most powerful ways to tell someone they matter.
About Single Homeless Project
Single Homeless Project has been working with Londoners experiencing homelessness since 1975. It operates in all 32 London boroughs and now supports more than 10,000 people a year, providing safe places to live, mental health and wellbeing support, help into work and much more.
Every Christmas, the charity serves dinners to the people it works with, and each one is tailored to individual dietary needs. What struck me is that it has created a dedicated vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner gift. As the charity points out, London has the highest proportion of vegans and vegetarians in the UK, and people experiencing homelessness hold their values and practices just as dearly as anyone else. Your £10 gift ensures that a plant-based meal goes to someone who shares that choice.
You can also add a little extra:
- £1 for a Christmas card
- £3 towards a Christmas pudding
- £10 to fund another Christmas dinner
There’s space to leave a personal message, which the team delivers alongside your gift. If you’re a UK taxpayer, ticking the Gift Aid box adds 25% at no cost to you.
Homelessness in London: The Numbers
As reported by The Big Issue, 12,938 people sleeping rough were recorded by frontline homelessness workers on the capital’s streets in 2025-26. That’s a small 2% fall on the previous year’s record, but still around 60% higher than a decade ago. Among them were 1,291 young people aged 25 or under, and 667 care leavers.
Sleeping rough is only one part of the picture. Across England, 135,580 households (and a total of 177,530 children) were living in temporary accommodation at the end of March 2026, a figure that according to the government has repeatedly hit record highs. London is hit hardest of all: 21.1 households in every 1,000 are in temporary accommodation, almost four times the national rate of 5.5 (GOV.UK, Statutory homelessness in England, Jan–Mar 2026).
Why I’m Supporting This Appeal
I’ve spent more than a decade encouraging people to eat less meat and more plants, not as a rule, but as a choice rooted in care for our health, our planet and animal welfare. Food choices are personal. They reflect who we are and what we believe in.
That’s why this particular gift resonated so strongly with me. Too often, people experiencing homelessness are treated as if they should be grateful for whatever they are given, as though their values no longer count. By offering a dedicated vegan or vegetarian dinner, Single Homeless Project gives people a meal choice that respects those values.
I also love that it’s practical. £10 is the price of a sandwich and a coffee in central London, yet it can provide a proper festive meal for someone who might otherwise go without. Add a handwritten-style message and a card, and it becomes something more: a reminder that a stranger was thinking of them at Christmas.
And as someone who believes food is about connection, I can’t think of a better way to share what The Flexitarian stands for.
How You Can Help
The charity has already opened its Christmas shop so it can plan every dinner around individual needs, which means giving now makes a real difference. Here’s how to get involved:
- Donate a dinner. Visit the Single Homeless Project Christmas shop and give a £10 vegan or vegetarian Christmas dinner.
- Add a little extra. A card, a pudding or a second dinner all help.
- Leave a message. A few kind words go a long way.
- Tick Gift Aid if you’re a UK taxpayer.
- Share this post with friends, family and colleagues.
With only 10 weeks to Christmas, let’s make sure no one in London has to spend it hungry or alone.
Find more info about Single Homeless Project. Registered charity no. 287779.
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