The Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation has awarded The Springboard Charity a £20,000 (€23,000) grant to support 42 young people facing barriers to employment through its Destination Hospitality programme, giving HR and early careers teams in hospitality a funded route to build entry-level talent pipelines.

Sodexo Stop Hunger Foundation is an independent, UK-registered charity launched by Sodexo UK & Ireland in 2005, with 100% of donations directed to charity partners.

The Springboard Charity is a UK hospitality charity that has spent 35 years providing training, mentoring and work placements for people facing disadvantage.

Sodexo UK & Ireland, led by chief executive Jean Renton, is the Foundation's founding partner and will host the programme's introductory courses.

The strategic logic treats employment as a route out of food insecurity. Patrick Forbes, chair of trustees at the Foundation, said its mission includes tackling the barriers that stop people reaching financial stability, and Destination Hospitality combines employability training, workplace experience and direct pathways into employment.

Jean Renton, chief executive of Sodexo UK & Ireland, said: "Springboard has a strong track record of helping people facing disadvantage into hospitality careers, closely aligned to our commitment to social mobility."

The structural driver is employer involvement beyond funding. Sodexo's early years careers team will support the selected participants throughout the programme and beyond, hosting two-day Introduction to Hospitality courses at three English locations, while colleagues contribute through volunteering, workplace visits and careers insight.

Participants will be supported towards jobs, apprenticeships and further training, including Sodexo roles where appropriate, and the programme expects 60% to 80% to progress into positive destinations.

The grant builds on a long-standing relationship that includes employability programmes and the FutureChef competition, and follows a 20-year record in which the Foundation has supported more than 9.6 million beneficiaries through 230 charity partners and distributed more than £6.4 million (€7.4 million) in grants.

For the sector, the grant shows how employer-linked charitable funding is becoming a route to build early careers pipelines in labour-intensive industries, with hosting, mentoring and onward job pathways attached to the money rather than treated as separate activities.

Source: Hospitality & Catering News / FM Business Daily / Sodexo