‘Back in Business’, raising much needed funds for Hospitality Action

Giuliana Vittiglio is Head of Fundraising and Marketing at Hospitality Action. We asked Giuliana about this year’s challenge.

‘Last year we went to ‘Hell and Back’, which was a phenomenal success, and it reflected the mood of the nation because, thanks to the pandemic, we’d all been to hell. Now we are thankfully back in business, and hospitality is buzzing again, you can feel the atmosphere wherever you go, across pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels, its electric.’

‘Sadly, a lot of venues, and their teams, didn’t survive the pandemic.  They’ve gone through incredibly tough times, and they continue to do so. We want to raise as much as we can to help our hospitality colleagues who are experiencing tough times.’

Back in Business, circling the globe

Giuliana continued, ‘We want to celebrate hospitality across all of the venues that we missed during Covid and will be virtually circumnavigating the globe as part of our challenge. The target is 50,000 miles over 10 days, visiting all of our favourite hot spots, visiting Naples for a pizza, Ceasars Palace in Las Vegas, Buenos Aries for an Argentinian steak, Reims for some Taittinger champagne, Raffles Hotel for a Singapore Sling and even stopping off at the Guinness brewery in Dublin.’

What is the target Hospitality Action hope to reach?

This year the target is 50,000 virtual miles between 10th – 20th of June. Giuliana is confident that hospitality people will achieve this.

‘We’ve got 10 days to do it, getting as many teams and individuals as we possibly can involved. Last year we had over 1,000 participants to help us achieve our 30,000 miles, and we actually did 36,000 miles. Everybody really pulled together to help us exceed the target. So, we thought we’d up it to 50 this year!  Hospitality people are a competitive bunch, and we’re confident we will hit our target’

Why have Caterer.com sponsored Hospitality Action’s Back in Business? 

HA Caterer.com supports hospitality people every day.

Kathy Dyball, Brand Director at event sponsor Caterer.com said: ‘The past two years have been incredibly tough for so many hospitality people and we at Caterer.com are there every step of the way to support them. We are excited to sponsor and take part in the #BackinBusiness tour, get active and raise funds to boost the crucial work HA does in supporting those in the sector who are in need. Their work is more essential than ever.’

What is the goal?

The goal is £250,000 for hospitality people in need.

We asked Giuliana how much the charity hoped to raise through Back in Business. ‘We recently held our back to the floor event in London, which Caterer.com kindly sponsored, and raised a record-breaking quarter of a million pounds. We would like to try to beat that.

‘Unfortunately, whilst that’s a huge sum of money, it doesn’t cover what we spend in even a few months to support the industry. If we could raise a quarter of a million, we would be absolutely thrilled, over the moon!’

How will the funds raised be used?

Hospitality people need support in so many different ways. Giuliana explained, ‘People come to Hospitality Action for help and assistance. For example, school uniforms for children from families who can’t afford the added cost of school uniforms.  Mostly it’s very basic things like food, rent and fuel, the necessities to help people survive day to day.

Get involved today

20 official teams have already registered and there is a lot of activity going on behind the scenes with teams planning their routes, team names and logos – it’s a seriously competitive event with teams aiming to beat The Pig and Limewood’s amazing success in 2021.

Giuliana said ‘They did a route between all of their different properties, and they raised around £40,000! They’re back on board this year, which is really exciting.’

‘If you haven’t registered your team yet, it’s so easy. You just log on to hospitality action.org.uk and tThere’s a link there that takes you directly to the challenge microsite, there’s a big red button that you press and then register.

Giuliana and the Hospitality Action team will all be taking part but haven’t set their target yet. ‘I’ll be walking with one of my colleagues who has a dog so should be doing lots of dog walking, but you can do anything run, cycle, swim, wheel, even pogo if you want to.

By logging your exercise, donating to Hospitality Action and cajoling others to sponsor you and join in, you’ll help make a fundamental difference to hospitality people across the UK.