Local businesses proved their prowess the past several months as they completely transformed their business models, moving physical stores online and introducing new products and services. While everyone was in the same boat of trying to stay afloat, some businesses stood out in lockdown, giving back to the community with free food and services - and they thrived in the process.
We take a look at two UK small businesses to see how they pivoted with the changing times but continued to put people first, in lockdown and beyond.
The social enterprise pizzeria fighting to eradicate food poverty
Tiny Idea, a community-focused non-profit based in West Yorkshire, was founded by father-of-three, Steve Wright, and makes delicious artisanal pizzas made with local ingredients, distributed from a 1958 English caravan. Pizzas are donated to the homeless and those who access food banks in a discreet brown box - Wright describes it as “almost like a food bank, but without the stigma.”
“We have found that in this district that people are very proud. They don’t want to be judged. However, when they come to our caravan they leave with a brown box with a hot, amazing pizza inside. Who’s to know whether they’ve been given it for free or paid £7 or £8 for it?” he says.
The pandemic put a total stop on the business as suppliers ran out of flour and yeast and trading ceased - Wright used up all of his remaining ingredients to make pizzas to donate to the local homeless community twice a week. When that ran out, he started getting Chinese takeaway noodles from his supplier and delivering them to rough sleepers.
When Wright was able to produce pizzas again, he launched DIY pizza kits, with dough and ingredients to make pizzas from scratch at home, hand-delivering them to customers who purchased them from the caravan and his online store, which also sells Tiny Idea’s homemade bottled sauces. The proceeds from these purchases then paid for more noodles, so Wright could continue helping those in need through lockdown.
In addition to helping tackle food poverty, Tiny Idea is committed to a zero-waste policy - all unused ingredients are donated to local food banks and packaging is compostable, degradable, recycled or plant-based.
Collaboration has been another key component of Tiny Idea’s success: Wright reached out to Alex, who runs Maud’s Cafe, to work on events together, and also enlisted local artist Rachel List - known for her artwork celebrating the NHS - to paint a mural on the side of his caravan.
“We are in talks with someone at the moment to lease a cafe in Pontefract so we have a brick and mortar premises. The plan is to look for local unemployed people suffering with their mental health, and homeless (recently housed) to work in the cafe. We will have ‘pay what you feel’ weeks, as well as ‘pay it forward’ schemes in place,” Wright says of his future plans for the business.
For anyone working for the NHS or emergency services, you get 25% off DIY pizza kit and pizza orders from the caravan - for good.
The children’s entertainer who provided online classes for free
Ruth Silver runs KangaRooKids, which offers inspiring drama and music classes and camps for young children in locations in north London and Hertfordshire.
She created a video of herself with a kangaroo puppet on March 19th, 2020 and posted it to a Family Lockdown Tips & Ideas group on Facebook, which now boasts over 1 million members.
Overnight, her followers grew from 1,000 to 4,500 - as did demand from parents for her Facebook Live classes, which kicked off the following day for babies through six-year-olds, with hundreds of people attending virtually and parents messaging with feedback.
“I was reactive. I was one of the first in my area to get online and I made it free for the first three weeks, setting up a Go Fund Me account,” Silver tells HuffPost UK.
Harried parents were scrambling to find online classes and entertainment at the height of the pandemic - especially if they were working alongside homeschooling and entertaining the kids. Not everyone had the budget to spend money on classes they weren’t sure their kids would participate in, let alone enjoy.
“I saw a lot of people going on and charging straight away, but I wanted to offer it as a free model for marketing purposes. Everybody was struggling financially anyway, so I think people really appreciated that I was on Facebook Live,” Silver says.
While Silver wasn’t able to go into schools, she also hosted kids’ parties via Zoom, before moving to outdoor sessions for the first time - her classes had all been held in schools and indoor venues previously.
Silver also took advantage of a few corporate opportunities that came her way, to host Easter themed sessions for children of Silicon Valley Bank employees to entertain kids as their parents worked from home. She is also organising private sessions in small groups in people’s gardens and will continue outdoors while the weather holds.