Coronavirus update – the latest news from Yorkshire businesses
A Halifax based outdoor media company, CP Media has offered to provide the colourful messages drawn by children in many windows across the county with further exposure through its portfolio of digital screens in bus stations across West Yorkshire to spread the message of positivity.
The firm which is one of the UK’s fastest growing independent outdoor advertising providers, is asking children of all ages across Yorkshire to upload pictures of their posters and messages of support for the NHS to the company’s Facebook page. These will then be published via its digital screens for all NHS workers passing these screens to see as they go to and from work.
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A crowdfunding campaign has been launched by award-winning Punch Bar & Tapas to increase capacity of its NHS Menu initiative – providing hundreds of free family meals for NHS employees working hard to fight the Covid-19 outbreak over the next three months.
Since the campaign launched 10 days ago over 1,000 NHS family meal orders have been placed.
The launched following an initial donation of £20,000 from Honley residents, Ian and Jill Swire, to provide 200 free family meals a week until June. The restaurant, is keen to increase the number of meals to 500 a week to meet demand and support as many doctors, nurses and NHS staff as possible.
The fundraiser currently stands at £22,555. A donation of £10 provides one meal a week for an NHS family; £100 provides a family meal a week for the next 10 weeks: www.gofundme.com/f/9yrd84-nhs-menu-punch-bar-amp-tapas
The restaurant is also ensuring that no food goes to waste by providing Honley Volunteers group and the NLCC Foodbank in Thongsbridge with any excess meals to distribute amongst vulnerable people in the local community.
Wayne Roddis, Punch Bar & Tapas co-owner and chef, said: “The response has been absolutely incredible. We’ve received hundreds of messages of support, both publicly and privately, with many people saying it has brought tears to their eyes. With over 1,000 orders having already been placed, including for the June dates, we’re keen to increase capacity to ensure as many frontline NHS workers as possible can enjoy our meals. We hope that, by offering fresh, nutritious, homemade meals for NHS staff and their families, we can make these difficult days a little bit easier.”
With the chefs locally-sourcing their menu ingredients, Yorkshire-based food suppliers are also benefitting from the project – including Atkinsons Butchers in Holmfirth; Roger’s Bakery in Marsden; CJ Fresh Foods in Honley; Birkby Cheese Company in Huddersfield; and J Wilson Fruit and Veg in Huddersfield.
NHS staff are invited to complete an online registration form to receive a link to make their menu selection, on a first-come-first-served basis.
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A Wakefield-based law firm, which specialises in helping injured people, is offering its virtual contact centre to those businesses who are struggling due to increases in calls or reduced capacity due to higher levels of colleague absence.
Minster Law operates a 60+ people strong call centre, which is now a fully remote enabled, and ensures it can maintain operations through the Covid-19 crisis. The contact centre handles on average more than 12,000 calls a month from customers and has the capacity to scale up further where demand requires it.
Minster Law CEO Shirley Woolham said: “We felt it makes sense to offer the expertise of our call centre professionals to other Yorkshire businesses who could do with some help. Many firms in the area are struggling to deal with calls, but our business continuity plan has been in place for almost 2 weeks and we’d like to put our expertise and spare capacity to good use.
“There couldn’t be a more important time for regional business owners across all sectors and specialisms to come together and seek ways of supporting one another. We need to ensure our local economy, which supports the livelihoods of so many people, can continue to thrive beyond the current crisis.
“We are already speaking to a number of other customer-facing companies who need help and I’m urging any other local businesses that feel they could benefit from our support to get in touch”
