Josh Littlejohn

Josh Littlejohn MBE is a social entrepreneur, philanthropist and homeless campaigner who founded charities the Social Bite and the World’s Big Sleep Out.

Early life and education[]

Josh Littlejohn was born on 16 September 1986 in Edinburgh, United Kingdom. He has an honours degree in Politics and Economics from Edinburgh University.^[1]

Career[]

In August 2012 Littlejohn and Alice Thompson co-founded the Social Bite, a small chain of sandwich shops that donates its profits to social causes.^[2][3]

Littlejohn built a Social Bite Village from reclaimed wasteland in Edinburgh to provide shelter and support for up to 20 homeless people.^[4][5]

In December 2019, Littlejohn launched the World’s Big Sleep Out,^[6] which took place in 52 cities including London, New York, Delhi and Hong Kong.^[7] In 2016, he co-founded a social enterprise beer company called Brewgooder, where the profits go towards providing clean water.^[8] The brewery set out an aim of providing clean drinking water for one million people in five years.^[9]

He has appeared on the One Show^[10] and BBC Breakfast.^[11] Newspaper interviews include The New York Times,^[12] The Guardian^[13] and The Times.^[14]

Recognition[]

In 2017, Littlejohn was given an MBE in the New Years Honours list.^[15][7] He has received an honorary Doctor of Science in Social Science from the University of Edinburgh^[1] and honorary doctorates from Robert Gordon University ,^[16] Edinburgh Napier University,^[17] and Queen Margaret University^[18]

He was included in the Debrett’s list of 500 most influential people in the UK 2017.^[19]

Littlejohn collected the Pride of Britain Special Recognition award in 2019.^[20][21]

In 2020, he won the Robert Burns Humanitarian Award for helping helpless people.^[22][23]

References[]