Cambscuisine is a local independent restaurant group with a mix of city-centre restaurants and country pubs across Cambridgeshire.
Its venues are rooted in the places they serve, so when the team wanted to give something back, supporting the local community was the natural next step. That’s why, in 2019, they set up the Cambscuisine Community Fund with us.
We spent some time talking to Oliver Thain, Founder and Owner of Cambscuisine, to learn more about his motivations behind the Fund, and what it’s achieved for the company, and the community.
Oliver tells us the idea for the Fund came from a moment during a normal shift at the Chop House, one of Cambscuisine’s Cambridge City Centre restaurants. Seeing customers spend generously on steak while a homeless person walked past outside made the contrast hard to ignore.
“The dichotomy there was quite stark and real, and I thought actually we should do something about this. Hence we got to the mantra for the fund, which is giving people a second chance.” Oliver tells us.
Money for the fund is raised in-house, with a simple principle – when a customer spends over £50 in a Cambscuisine restaurant or pub, an optional £1 donation is added to the bill. A card on each table explains what the fund is about and how that £1 can make a real impact to local communities.
£1 doesn’t sound like much, but over the course of a year those small quantities add up to around £75,000. Money that directly goes to supporting the causes that matter to the Cambscuisine team.
The team also fundraises in other ways too. In March 2026, eight Cambscuisine colleagues ran the Cambridge Half Marathon and raised nearly £2,600, and they’ll be running again in 2027 too.
Julia Hul, part of the Cambscuisine team, tells us: “It’s a massive achievement for us personally as a team and obviously to help the community. You can help so many people, so many different charities, so many different communities. That’s what I love.”
Many businesses want to support their local communities, but can be unsure where to start. The Foundation makes that possible by creating funds for corporate partners. Those funds then award grants to local charities and community groups.
Foundation CEO, Michael O’Toole tells us “Cambscuisine has been an excellent partner for the Foundation and they’re a great example of a local business that decided they wanted to have a really positive impact on their local community.”
Michael continues: “What the foundation does is take away the administrative burden of having a fund – the compliance and risks that can be involved in charitable giving – to make sure that your charitable philanthropy achieves not only the greatest impact, but is done in the most effective and efficient way possible”.
“Oliver ThainI can only thank the people who tick the box that they want to give the pound. They enable us to support such really worthwhile entities that are doing such great work.
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Cambscuisine
Michael O’Toole | CEO
Email Michael
