Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Vegan restaurant launches pay it forward wall for those in need

Claire Reed of The Alley Cat in Mealmarket Close in Inverness with their 'Pay it Forward' tokens.
Claire Reed of The Alley Cat in Mealmarket Close in Inverness with their 'Pay it Forward' tokens.

A vegan restaurant in Inverness is stretching out a hand to those in need by launching a pay it forward scheme.

The Alleycat restaurant on Mealmarket Close launched the initiative to encourage customers to make a small donation towards supplying a meal for a homeless person, someone who has forgotten their wallet or is simply starving and skint till pay day.

Customers can donate as little as £2.50 or as much as they want with all contributions being matched by the business through £5, £10 and £20 vouchers.

Every donation received will be stuck on the wall, where it can be discreetly picked up and traded in for a hot meal.

We are now doing vouchers!We are also launching a PAY IT FORWARD wall.If you are feeling generous you can pay it…

Posted by The Alleycat Inverness on Monday, 15 April 2019

Owner Andrew Barnett, 32, said his younger sister Claire Reed was the mastermind behind the scheme which he hopes will spread goodness across the community.

He said: “It was my sister’s idea. She saw it in a café somewhere abroad that had famously done it.

“When we started off a couple of months ago we were doing a promotion called ‘Name That Tune’ and we were giving away a free toasties every day to the first person that comes in and I kind of thought most of these people don’t really care.

!They said that they just wanted to win but were happy to pay for it. I thought well why don’t we use those free toasties and stick them on the wall for people who can’t afford them.


>> Keep up to date with the latest news with The P&J newsletter


“We want to do good for people. We are obviously a vegan place but with that being said we also care about humans and the government and home services, everything is a bit rubbish at the moment.

“There are lots of people needing foodbanks, lots of homeless people and stuff like that so the idea is hopefully helping with that if we can.

“We would like to do other things, we are hoping to go down and speak the food bank and see if we can do something with them.”

Claire Reed of The Alley Cat in Mealmarket Close.

Despite only launching the appeal this week, Mr Barnett says the community are already throwing their support behind it.

He added: “We have had a few people come in and say it’s a good idea and when they get paid they will come in and donate.  When I go down and speak to the foodbank I will mention it to them and hopefully they will pass onto people that are using the foodbank.”