A county Armagh-based takeaway fish and chip company has taken its community ethos to biblical proportions with a year-long ‘Feed 5000’ campaign.
The benevolent takeaway company, Nantuckets operates out of three ABC council area locations; in Portadown, Lurgan and Laurelvale.
Owner, Dwaine Smyth said “giving back” to his community and customers has always been at the forefront of what they do. Since opening their first location in Portadown in 2017 they have regularly given away vouchers and made charitable donations.
But Dwaine said, they wanted to find a way to “really put food into the mouths of people at a grassroots level” and so heading in to 2025 the team came up a with a plan to do just that.
Thus their Feed 5000 initiative started in January encompassing all three locations.
On the last Thursday of every month, a time slot opens up between 4pm and 5pm where anyone inside their chosen demographic and simply turn up to receive a hot meal – with “no strings attached”.
Explained Dwaine: “Each month we rotate it so for one month we choose school children to get chicken nuggets and chips or sausages and chips and the following month we invite the elderly and give them a fish and chips or chicken goujons and chips for free completely free.”
Their endeavour is also completely self-funded using all of their own stock – but Dwaine explains it’s been such a roaring success so far that they have already received expressions of interest from local suppliers who wish to collaborate.
Which would be ideal, says Dwaine who hopes to continue giving back “year after year”.
Receiving a free meal under the Feed 5000 campaign is not means tested in any way, but – as Dwaine explained – there is a chosen demographic each month which they hope will be respected.
Explaining their reason not to means test, he said: “We looked into that but there are situations where an elderly person can’t get in so a daughter or son or grandchild might come in for them.
“It’s a scatter gun approach almost. There will be people come in who maybe didn’t need it as much but in the grand scheme of things as long as 99% is going to the people who need it then it’s worth doing.”
The team are keeping track of their progress so far through a “ticket system” on their tills and to date have fed 894 people.
While Dwaine says this is “slightly below target” he’s delighted with how well it’s been going, crediting a “hardworking team of staff” whom without – they wouldn’t be able to do this.
And, while all three shops are “heaving” in the one hour allocated slot, he has plans to ramp it up even further if they fall behind target.
Said Dwaine: “I think what we are going to do is when it comes to the third or fourth quarter we will increase the amount of times we do it in a month or we will create some form of a full day event!”
Their next time slot is scheduled for This Thursday April 24 between 4pm and 5pm at all three locations.
This week they are feeding the elderly – or “the legends of our community” as they are known at Nantuckets – with a free chicken goujons and chips meal.
You can keep up to date with Nantuckets’ Feed 5000 challenge via their Facebook page here.
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