See our guide to this year’s hottest new businesses and most innovative founders in the complete 2024 Startups 100 index.
In recognition of the startup which is putting purpose ahead of profit, with evidence of a commitment to making the world a better place with its business model.
Startups 100: Social Impact AwardFounder: James Reid and Lewis Greenwood
Year founded: 2019
Website: eatfinktalk.com
Fink Street Food is a catering company with a difference. Not content with simply creating a delicious fusion of Middle Eastern and British cuisine, it wants to give back to the community, too.
As founders – James Reid and Lewis Greenwood – say “Fink Street Food is on a mission to shatter the silence around mental health”. It does this by creating safe spaces to discuss mental health issues, as well as putting the company profits into counselling for young people.
The company came about from the founders’ own experiences of seeing first-hand the effects of mental health issues on friends and family.
Determined to do something about the isolation felt by so many, last year, the company launched The Fink Tank, a pioneering social enterprise food truck. Thanks to the revenue generated through the mobile eatery, it has been able to help support even more young people with mental health counselling sessions, as well as providing a platform to raise awareness about mental health issues.
In addition to its food truck, Fink Street Food also offers a range of catering services for events, meetings, and corporate lunches. Hosting educational cooking workshops at schools has been a further innovative and engaging way of promoting healthy eating habits and well-being among students.
Fink Street Food is growing fast, with an impressive list of achievements in the past year alone – from partnering with high profile organisations such as PwC and BaxterStorey, catering at the 6 Nations event at Twickenham, and achieving 31% annual sales growth from 2021 to 2022. Unsurprisingly, it has also been shortlisted for the Social Impact category of the Startups 100.
What’s next for Fink Street Food? Massive growth. Reid and Greenwood want to see a fleet of Fink Tank Food trucks across the UK, catering at major music productions, festivals and indoor events. Not only that, but it aims to franchise the brand to other operators to help grow the brand and provide another revenue stream.
With its mobile mental health and well-being van, we fink this social enterprise has truckloads of good stuff to come.
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