A vegan restaurant in Inverness is stretching out a hand to those in need by launching a pay it forward scheme.
The Alleycat restaurant on Mealmarket Close launched the initiative to encourage customers to make a small donation towards supplying a meal for a homeless person, someone who has forgotten their wallet or is simply starving and skint till pay day.
Customers can donate as little as £2.50 or as much as they want with all contributions being matched by the business through £5, £10 and £20 vouchers.
Every donation received will be stuck on the wall, where it can be discreetly picked up and traded in for a hot meal.
Owner Andrew Barnett, 32, said his younger sister Claire Reed was the mastermind behind the scheme which he hopes will spread goodness across the community.
He said: “It was my sister’s idea. She saw it in a café somewhere abroad that had famously done it.
“When we started off a couple of months ago we were doing a promotion called ‘Name That Tune’ and we were giving away a free toasties every day to the first person that comes in and I kind of thought most of these people don’t really care.
!They said that they just wanted to win but were happy to pay for it. I thought well why don’t we use those free toasties and stick them on the wall for people who can’t afford them.
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“We want to do good for people. We are obviously a vegan place but with that being said we also care about humans and the government and home services, everything is a bit rubbish at the moment.
“There are lots of people needing foodbanks, lots of homeless people and stuff like that so the idea is hopefully helping with that if we can.
“We would like to do other things, we are hoping to go down and speak the food bank and see if we can do something with them.”
Despite only launching the appeal this week, Mr Barnett says the community are already throwing their support behind it.
He added: “We have had a few people come in and say it’s a good idea and when they get paid they will come in and donate. When I go down and speak to the foodbank I will mention it to them and hopefully they will pass onto people that are using the foodbank.”