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Hospitality Action

Registered charity number 1101083

On JustGiving since Mar 2003

Why charities use JustGiving

About Hospitality Action

Hospitality Action is the only benevolent organisation which currently provides financial assistance, support and advice to people who are/were involved, or the company/subsidiary that they work/worked for is involved, in the direct provision of food, drink and accommodation away from home and their dependants.

The applicant's work history will need to have been within the UK or Northern Ireland and cover one of the following three time frames:

  • Currently working within the industry
  • Have worked for one continuous year in the past five years
  • Have worked for seven continuous years in their lifetime

Providing financial support and information to those suffering from accident, illness or bereavement, anywhere in the United Kingdom, of whatever age or nationality.




Our history

Hospitality Action was originally founded as the ‘London Coffee House Keepers Association’ for the purpose of “relieving aged and decayed members of the trade, their widows and orphans” who “from reverses of fortune (to which we are all liable) might be reduced from a state of comparative prosperity to the alternative of dragging out a miserable existence within the walls of a workhouse” (quotations from Rules and Regulations LCHKA 1837)

Key milestones in the history of what is now known as Hospitality Action include:

1838 - Organisation admitted as members of “Eating House”
1858 - Qualifying age for benefit reduced from 60 to 50
1882 - Eligibility for pensions extended to females
1921 - Organisation renamed “The Catering Benevolent Association”
1955 - Organisation renamed “The Hotel and Catering Trades Benevolent Association
1966 - First female Trustee appointed
1968  - The Grand Council of senior industry figures appointed to secure funding for the Charity.
1972 - Organisation renamed “The Hotel and Catering Benevolent Association”
1976 - Organisation is registered as a Housing Association for the provision of retirement homes.
1998 - Organisation renamed “Hospitality Action”
1999 - Decision is taken to sell retirement homes and focus on giving financial grants and advice.
2003 - Vocational/Educational support for Student Caterers