On 20th March, restaurants, pubs and bars were told to close their doors, as the UK entered the initial period of lockdown. Over 100 days later, no person or business remains unscathed by Covid-19 and the measures that have been put in place to control this global pandemic have been exponential. There has been monumental impact on the hospitality industry and the scale will continue for weeks to come.
During the first few weeks of lockdown, the impact on our teams and suppliers became of great concern, so with a mission of providing a purpose for our teams, ensure cash flow to suppliers and support our local communities, ‘YourHub’ was born.
Both Peachy team, and a group of close supporters, volunteered their time, company resources and energy to create a way of working and an IT platform to allow pubs and restaurants to trade as a not-for-profit organisations.
Thanks to our volunteers, we are delighted to say that in the 80 odd days we operated, we achieved the following:
10 Hubs opened
56 Your Hub volunteers cooking in our Hub kitchens, serving in our Hub shops and keeping things safe, socially distanced and successful behind the scenes! And enjoying making a difference.
10,750 Meals cooked by our volunteer chefs
1,000 Local orders processed via our Your Hub online shop
As a result of this, along with incredibly generous donations from our partners we have:
Received £11,413 in donations which helped provide meals for those in need, subsequently supporting us to produce charitable meals and food donations for NHS frontline workers, local care homes and charities.
Following all our work, we also created a total surplus of £30,620.
This surplus grew in the final 4 weeks, as pub opening plans became a focus some of the Hubs didn’t necessarily find the partners to distribute in the last few weeks. Over the coming weeks, we will be working with local partners to distribute the surplus and focus on local homeless and those most in need. We will encourage our teams to volunteer and contribute feeding to the needy.
Our Hubs closed their doors on 29th June as our plans to open approached. We will be back as so many volunteers have enjoyed the opportunity to serve our communities. The surplus will be used as intended.
We couldn’t have done it with the support of our volunteers. Thank you to each and every one of you from the bottom of our hearts, as well as to all those who have placed orders, visited a hub, or helped to get YourHub off the ground in the pubs. Also a huge thanks to all those involved from organisations who gave their time and free resources. We should be proud to have made a difference, so a huge thank all those involved.
Formation
“Yourhub.pub” was formed in the weekend of 20th March 2020, as England locked down and our pubs closed. Our founder, Hamish Stoddart, saw an opportunity to serve the community, and support furloughed teams. A volunteer base cooked, served and delivered food, giving people a purpose in supplying the NHS, homeless charities and care homes. Yourhub.pub began as a not-for-profit. The weeks that followed, were supported by many organisations and individuals. Our volunteers combined Peach Pubs furloughed team, with suppliers, guests, family and friends.
We raised substantial surplus cash, received through donations and the difference between cost of goods and sales, and had many volunteers supporting in many ways. Our goal to provide volunteers with a purpose, and serve our community during the Covid-19 crisis was achieved.
We received fantastic donations from Heinz, Purity, Rubies, Chase, Cambridge Distillery, Tarquin’s, Who Gives a Crap and Greene King – this all helped us increase our local support. We worked with partners across many charities and within the NHS including:
- NHS
- Feed our Frontline https://feedourfrontline.org/
- Food4Heroes https://www.food4heroes.co.uk/
- John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford
- Russell Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hospitals
- Youth Charities
- YMCA, Birmingham
- St Basils
- Homeless
- Foodshare Maidenhead http://foodshare.today/
- Helping Hands Warwickshire https://www.helpinghandscharity.org.uk/
- Bedford Care Homes and Sheltered Accommodation
- Free food to 4 locations, NHS Call Centre 111, Care homes, Homeless in Holiday Inn
- And many other smaller donations or support for individuals.