Sandwich shop Social Bite has launched a new loyalty card which will see homeless people given free food rather than existing customers.

From now on, instead of regulars being give a free coffee after five visits and a half price lunch after 10, a homeless person will be given a free meal and a drink for every 10 visits a customer makes.

The idea for the new selfless loyalty card came about after customers suggested they would like to donate their freebies to those less fortunate.

This is the next step in making sure no homeless people go hungry and we hope other businesses will follow suit

“We had a lot of customers wondering if they could give their free coffees and discounted lunches to the homeless instead of keeping them for themselves," said founder of Social Bite, Josh Littlejohn.

“We’ve realised there is a real culture of people wanting to help people less fortunate than themselves – and if they can do that in their daily routines it’s a real bonus.

“This is the next step in making sure no homeless people go hungry and we hope other businesses will follow suit.”

Social Bite, a social enterprise, already supports homeless people in a number of ways – a quarter of its workforce is made up of people who were previously homeless and it also offers suspended meals and coffee.

It currently has cafes in Edinburgh, Glasgow and opened an Aberdeen store just last month. It donates 100% of its profits to charities including Shelter Scotland, Vision Eye Care Hospital in Bangladesh and the MicroLoan Foundation in Malawi and Zambia.

The concept has grown in popularity recently, particularly after it announced a competition to win dinner with Hollywood star and humanitarian George Clooney who will visit the Edinburgh shop next month.