Cook & Dine is our annual fundraising lunch celebrating & showcasing all that is great about the UK's hospitality industry. This unique event brings together industry guests and volunteers from all backgrounds, experiences, and seniority levels to cook, serve and dine together!
The occasion is focused on celebrating our shared commitment and helping raise funds and awareness to support people facing homelessness, and prison leavers, to rebuild their lives through employment opportunities in hospitality, tailored learning & development and financial support. Only A Pavement Away's vision is to support 1,500 members into employment and achieve at least 15,000 engagements with our L&D programmes by 2030.
This year’s Cook & Dine will be held on Tuesday 15th September!!
Date: 15th September 2026 / Location: The Waldorf Hilton, London
We are thrilled to be holding this year’s Cook & Dine at The Waldorf Hilton. A sincere thank you to all those that are supporting Only A Pavement Away in the making of Cook & Dine 2026. Thank you to the Hilton for allowing us to host this event, to our Patron Tom Aikens, and our event partners Caterer.com, Greene King, and Stonegate Group. Additionally, Cook & Dine would not be possible without the generosity of our event sponsors Asahi, Bidfood, HIT Training, Sideways, and Sona, and our event supporters Albion Fine Foods, Audio Visual Events, Brakes, Carlsberg Britvic, Dennys Brands, HG Walter, Isle of Wight Tomatoes, Liberty Wines, Pepsico, Pip&Nut, and Smith & Brock.
Funds raised through this event will help Only A Pavement Away’s mission of supporting people facing homelessness, and prison leavers, to rebuild their lives through employment opportunities in hospitality, tailored learning & development and financial support.
Have a look at last year’s Cook & Dine.
We are thrilled to announce that Cook & Dine 2025, held on 22nd of September at The Waldorf Hilton, and attended by 340 hospitality professionals, was our biggest and most successful yet, raising a phenomenal £73,741!
On the day, Greg Mangham, CEO and Founder of Only A Pavement Away, said "We are delighted by the success of this year’s Cook & Dine fundraising event, where we were, once again, able to come together and demonstrate the magnitude of the support from our industry, dedicated to helping those facing hardships. The £73.7k raised at this year’s Cook & Dine event will be vital in helping us place even more people facing homelessness into meaningful employment, across this fantastic industry. The event served as a great opportunity for us to also recognise all those who have supported us, in so many ways, throughout the past year. When Gill & I started Only A Pavement Away in 2018, we were hoping to help a few people into work - not 795! And so, to those who stand with us, our sincere thanks, and to those not yet part of the programme, we hope you left today feeling inspired to get involved!”
Our since thank you to our generous and invaluable sponsors and supporters for making the event such a success. Thank you to the Hilton for allowing us to host this event, to our Patron Tom Aikens, and our event partners Caterer.com, Greene King, and Stonegate. Additionally, Cook & Dine would not be possible without the generosity of our event sponsors Asahi, Bidfood, HIT Training, and Sona, and our event supporters Albion Fine Foods, AVE Audio Visual Events, Beillevaire, Boulangerie de Paris, Brakes, Carlsberg Britvic, David Lowrie Fish Merchants, Dennys Brands, Liberty Wines, Smith & Brock, and Wine GB. Finally, a heartfelt thank you to our incredible team of volunteers, and to everyone who attended the event.
The funds raised through this year’s event will go towards delivering the resources needed to enable Only A Pavement Away’s mission to provide pathways out of homelessness into purposeful employment within the hospitality industry.
Get in touch through the form below if you would like to attend the event and/or sponsor the event, we have many packages available!
