A YOUNG entrepreneur who is helping homeless people across the globe has won a top award in honour of Scotland’s most famous bard.

Dr Josh Littlejohn MBE won the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award (RBHA) 2020 at a special ceremony in Burns cottage last Wednesday.

Josh is the co-founder of Social Bite, a chain of sandwich and coffee shops which give 100 percent of their profits to good causes. Each year, the shops give more than 140,000 items of free healthy food to vulnerable people. Since 2015, Josh’s Social Bite Fund has been helping to eradicate homelessness.Promotion of the fund led to the ‘CEO Sleep Out’ in Edinburgh which in turn led to ‘Sleep in the Park’ with 8,000 people sleeping out to raise £4 million to help the homeless.

In December 2019 ‘The World’s Big Sleep Out’ took place with sixty thousand people participating in 50 cities across the world.

On receiving the RBHA, Josh said: “I was very humbled to even be nominated for this award, especially amongst such esteemed company such as Dr Izzeldein Abuelaishi, David Hayman and Patrick Rolink. To win the award in the name of our great national poet Robert Burns, whose humanitarian spirit was immortally captured in his poetry, is a real honour. I would like to dedicate the award to the hundreds of homeless people I have met in Scotland and all over the world, who inspire me to keep fighting to make a difference where I can.”

Josh has also set up the Social Bite Academy. This gives homeless people the chance to get back on their feet through volunteering. He received an MBE in the 2016 New Year’s Honours List for services to social enterprise and the following year he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by Edinburgh University.

Chair of the judging panel and leader of South Ayrshire Council, Cllr Douglas Campbell said: “Josh has the drive, determination and the talent to achieve almost anything in life but has chosen to use his considerable skills to help others. Not content with just tackling homelessness in Scotland, Josh has now taken his message to a global audience with some amazing results.”

Also recognised at the ceremony were fellow finalists Dr Izzeldein Abuelaish, David Hayman and his colleague Patrick Rolink.