a Facebook community<\/a> of more than 800,000 people who buy drinks for one another using the chain\u2019s app.<\/p>\nThe original game was built around a simple premise: strangers buy one another drinks in Wetherspoon\u2019s pubs \u2013 taking advantage of the fact that, unlike other pub apps, you do not have to be on Wetherspoon\u2019s premises to make an order.<\/p>\n
People simply post a photo of themselves on the Facebook page, along with their pub location and table number. Then they wait to see what someone, somewhere else in the UK, buys them. Those who receive are expected to return the favour for someone else later, creating a loose network of strangers buying rounds for one another.<\/p>\n
The founder, Chris Illman, started the WhatsApp group to support vulnerable people after experiencing homelessness himself. He asked members of his Facebook group if instead of buying drinks for one another they would buy food and non-alcoholic drinks for those who could not afford it themselves. Nearly 700 people joined the dedicated WhatsApp group and now respond in real time to requests from hungry people sitting hopefully in Wetherspoon\u2019s across the country.<\/p>\n
To request a meal, a homeless or vulnerable person \u2013 or a family \u2013 can contact admins on the Wetherspoon\u2019s: The Game! Facebook page with their location and meal request, accompanied by a photo to prove they are real and really in the pub. An admin \u2013 one of 10 \u2013 will then send the anonymised request to the WhatsApp group of potential donors.<\/p>\n
A Wetherspoon\u2019s event in London 2025, where 300 meals were distributed.<\/p>\n
A donor claims the request by replying with what they are prepared to order \u2013 a meal, for example, a bag of crisps or one simple word: anything. There are no \u201cthank yous\u201d. No happy photos. No chatter. <\/p>\n
Illman has never advertised the initiative but word has spread that if you find yourself inside a Wetherspoon\u2019s with no money, there are people who will help. \u201cIt\u2019s never failed yet. Not once,\u201d said Illman. \u201cIn fact, people are so quick that you have to move fast if you want to donate.\u201d<\/p>\n
The group handles a couple of requests on most days but during school holidays, 20 to 30 families can need help. Illman recently asked the community if there should be a limit on how many meals people can request. \u201cThe result of the vote was unanimous,\u201d he said. \u201cIf someone needs help every day, the group is there for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Carl, the donation of a single hot drink means he can sit in the pub for hours, using the wifi to call his daughters and applying for jobs.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou see the very worst of people when you\u2019re homeless,\u201d he said. \u201cBut in this group, you see the very best: strangers happy to buy me a meal without judgment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since 2018, the group has bought tens of thousands of meals and hundreds of thousands of snacks for vulnerable people across the UK. In June, in Scotland, it will hold its 60th mass meal drop \u2013 events where members buy meals in bulk through the Wetherspoon\u2019s app, which are then collected from the pub by volunteer drivers and taken to local charities.<\/p>\n
Group founder Chris Illman organised seven charities in Liverpool to feed homeless and vulnerable people in February 2024. Photograph: Robin Hancock<\/p>\n
The event is expected to be the group\u2019s largest yet: at a Liverpool event in 2024, 300 burgers and cans were donated by the group and handed out in 20 minutes. The event brought together seven charities which are still working together today.<\/p>\n
Maria gives what she can through the app at the end of each week. A foster carer and mother to two children with special needs who has been homeless herself, she said the app helps her feel \u201cthere\u2019s more kindness in the world than it might seem\u201d. She added: \u201cIt really makes a difference to me to feel I\u2019m part of a community that wants to do this for complete strangers.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Carl used to own pubs \u2013 several of them \u2013 and a string of hotels. Then two years…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":567272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-567271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=567271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/567271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/567272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=567271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=567271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=567271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}