The Ivy Collection donate meals to say thank you to key workers 

Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS) NHS Trust has collaborated with The Caring Foundation to extend its regional outreach programme by donating thousands of The Ivy Collection meals to local community projects which support vulnerable and homeless people.

During the coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, the foundation brought together teams from across their hospitality network to deliver a selection of meal options to NHS workers and vulnerable communities.

Company volunteers from The Caring Foundation hospitality brands in Yorkshire (The Ivy Victoria Quarter, The Ivy Harrogate, The Ivy St Helen’s Square, York and Bill’s Restaurant & Bar in Leeds) prepared '1 Million and One Meals in 10 weeks', of which 2500 were distributed across the East Riding.  

Through the Smile Foundation, the Pocklington COVID Response Hub redirected a number of these meals to local communities where vulnerable people found the lockdown particularly challenging as well as delivering to those key workers working tirelessly to keep our national health and community facilities operating.

Richard Caring who owns and operates multiple businesses in the hospitality sector, including The Ivy Collection said: ‘This is a time for reflection, patience, understanding, co-operation, trust, belief and most important of all; action! We have a hub of collective kitchens across the whole of the UK and we are blessed to have the most amazing staff and suppliers who truly want to help, even though there is risk involved. We applaud the wonderful network of our guests and friends of our brands for being so generous, not only with their good wishes, but also with actual donations and offers of support. 

“During these terrible times, with these unprecedented times upon us, we must all come together, help each other, support those desperately in need and I would say together we are strong and can make a real difference.”

Mandy Wilcock, Associate Director of Corporate Affairs at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: “Our sincere thanks go to The Caring Foundation for their very generous donation of meals to our staff who have been working tirelessly to care for patients during the coronavirus pandemic. It has been the wish of many of our staff to extend this kindness to local communities across the region and, working in partnership with The Caring Foundation, our Community Engagement Team was able to redistribute the meals to vulnerable families and individuals via food banks and community support projects.”

Andy Bowden, Chair of Pocklington Rugby in the Community paid tribute to both the Caring Foundation and Yorkshire Ambulance Service saying “I’d like to thank both organisations for donating their time and produce to support our local key workers and the most vulnerable in our community. The thank you messages have flooded in to the COVID Response Hub so we know that these kind gestures are really appreciated by those individuals who we as a local community continue to owe a huge debt of gratitude.”