Sea-ing A Bright Future

How the Cheesy Toast Shack in St Andrews uses its ‘Seagull Insurance’ to help the community

Emily Campbell

Often in a world with so much negative news, it can be really hard to focus on the positives in our own lives and the world around us. However, the Cheesy Toast Shack here in St Andrews is fighting against that narrative, one toastie at a time. 

The Cheesy Toast Shack originally came to St Andrews in 2018 (The Daily Mail) and quickly became a local favorite. However, within the last couple of years, there has been an increasing issue of seagulls stealing toasties from their customers.  The gulls apparently  steal food from up to ‘30 customers a day’ (Fife Today). Though the business was already replacing the stolen toasties for free, the owners, Kate and Sam, recently took the  opportunity to make something fun out of the problem that was constantly plaguing them. 

Source: The Daily Mail

News sources across the UK, including The Daily Mail, The Courier, Fife Today, and even social media platforms like TikTok started to share the story of ‘Seagull Insurance’ everywhere. For an additional £1, customers of the toastie shack are able to secure a replacement toastie if they accosted by an over-eager seagull and lose their original sandwich as a result. But this money doesn’t go back into the business, but instead, it goes directly to the community. 

‘It started as a joke mentioned in passing’, Kate mentioned in an email correspondence.  ‘When it went viral in the UK media and press, we decided to actually turn it into a positive and start donating to different charities each month with the money raised from it.’

And since its rise in popularity, the Cheesy Toast Shack has continued to raise money from the £1 insurance, giving money to local charities such as the St Andrews Food Bank, women’s domestic abuse funds, small and local GoFundMe’s, and Alzheimer's UK. The shack has also had a hand in sponsoring local sports teams around the Fife area, including children’s football teams and Dundee's amateur ice hockey team.

When asked about how she saw the role of the toastie shack in St Andrews, Kate stated:

‘I see it as such a positive. It’s a whole vibe, our little shack and the fun interactions we have with customers all the time there. It’s a meeting point for friends, colleagues, families, and even people on dates [. . .] there’s so many stories and jokes shared down at the shack [. . .] And because of its popularity, we are able to give back via things like seagull insurance.’

But they aren’t alone in their endeavors. Other local businesses such as We Are Zest support the community by working alongside Fife Council Supported Employment, Job Centre Plus, and more to ‘support […] people with additional needs to help them learn valuable work skills in order to achieve or maintain employment’ (Fife Today). We Are Zest also maintains a journal on their website with updates about new community involvements and programs to further inform the community on productive works going on around St Andrews and Fife. 

St Andrews is evolving with the times and the needs of its community, and it will be interesting to see what other businesses will follow suit.