Southdowns Manor offering free hot meals to those in need during coronavirus pandemic

Joe Hurst, joint director of the family-run wedding venue in Trotton, said they will do ‘everything we can to help out’ those people ‘genuinely in need’.

He added: “We are offering free hot meals to vulnerable people who are self isolating, including any frontline workers and of course their families. It’s not a delivery service for someone who wants a takeaway down the road.

“It’s for free and we will deliver or they can come and pick it up.

“We’ve always been big believers in helping and supporting the community where we can.

“It’s an unprecedented time but we are in a fortunate enough position to have the resources and financially be able to carry it out.”

Joe said they haven’t yet had a ‘massive uptake’ but have given regular support to one family ‘in particular’.

He said: “I hope if there are other local people out there in need or going to be in need, will contact us and we can help out.

“If and when we get fully up and running with this, the idea is that we would operate three or four days a week.”

Joe said the service is ‘completely new’ for the business.

“We run around 200 weddings a year, that’s our main business,” he said. “This is very different but something myself and head chef Carl and other members of the team feel quite passionate about — helping other people, especially in the local community.”

To register your interest, call 01730 763800 or email [email protected].

A message from the Editor, Gary Shipton:

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news, I am asking you to please purchase a copy of our newspapers.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers – and consequently the advertising that we receive – we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspapers.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world.  But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

Stay safe, and best wishes.