Yorkshire restaurant offers free meals for NHS staff during pandemic

It has served almost 3,000 meals and seen engagement on its social channels increase over the last five weeks.

The independent restaurant, Punch Bar & Tapas in Honley, near Huddersfield, decided to adapt its business in anticipation of the lockdown measures.

The restaurant launched its NHS Menu initiative to offer free meals for doctors, nurses and NHS staff to enjoy with their families, as a treat after a long shift.

More than 500 meals a week have been served since mid-March and most of the dates are sold out until June.

Punch Bar & Tapas’ social media channels have also been boosted by the initiative, seeing a 756 per cent organic engagement uplift and 1,112 per cent increase in the number of Facebook page likes, compared to the previous month.

The initiative was launched following an initial donation of £20,000 from Honley residents, Ian and Jill Swire. Through a crowdfunder, members of the public have so far donated an additional £7,500 which has enabled the team to add an extra day of meals a week for the next two months.

Co-owners and chefs Wayne Roddis and Richard Dunn have now launched Saturday night takeaways for members of the public – partnering with sister bar KRAFTY to offer one-litre bottles of draught craft beers for customers to enjoy at home with their meals.

Mr Roddis said: “Following the Covid-19 restaurant closures in France and Spain in early March, we could see it was likely to happen in UK as well. We partnered with Jill and Ian to come up with the NHS menu and takeaway idea and the response since has been incredible. We’re offering fresh, nutritious, homemade meals to hopefully help make these difficult days a little bit easier.

“We’ve been really busy and it’s keeping the business ticking over through this challenging period. And it means we won’t have a standing start when the lockdown is lifted.”

The fundraiser currently stands at £7,514. A donation of £10 provides a meal for an NHS worker and their family: www.gofundme.com/f/9yrd84-nhs-menu-punch-bar-amp-tapas.

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