A businesswoman in Salford is stepping up to the plate to provide free meals to kids.
39-year-old Carla Taylor, owner of Penelope’s Deli in Media City, is providing lunch and dinner for families and children in poverty over the half term holiday.
The move follows Marcus Rashford’s petition to fight for children to receive free school meals, following the rejection by Parliament to extend free school meals.
Ms Taylor said: “It’s up to local businesses to help people when they can.
“I think child poverty’s been going on for an awfully long time and as a business, you can’t not do nothing – you have to do something.
“We’ve been lucky, we’ve re-opened, we have budget where we can help people.”
Please RT you lovely bunch xo pic.twitter.com/aJE4xVXxWC
— Penelope's (@PenelopesMCR) October 23, 2020
Mrs Taylor has said the response from the public has already been significant.
“We put a call out last week when we saw that the government were not going to support the local children with free meals, so we just allocated a budget from our company.
“People came down or emailed us, asking “can you help us with lunch or lunch and dinner?”, so we told them they would get served and they wouldn’t be charged.
“I’m hoping to take the pressure off families who can’t afford to feed their children for whatever reason.”
The 39-year-old said she is trying to do it in the simplest way, whereby people can give their names and leave with their food.
The offer was met with praise from Barbara Keeley, MP for Worsley and Eccles South, who commented: “Another great business in Salford supporting our community – well done @PenelopesMCR”.
Another great business in #Salford supporting our community – well done @PenelopesMCR 👏👏 https://t.co/7Nas879PBv
— Barbara Keeley (@KeeleyMP) October 24, 2020
Another Twitter user said: “You folks are doing the hard work, great thing you’re doing. Thanks for supporting folks!”.
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