The Joseph Holt brewery has brought in all of its 127 pubs together to launch a campaign to help the homeless of Manchester. The 173-year-old family-run pub chain and brewery has joined with charities Lifeshare and Barnabus to collect clothes and other supplies to see those living on the streets through the winter.
It’s using its pubs to act as collection points for everything from sleeping bags and coats to socks, gloves and sweaters. The estate-wide campaign has been inspired by two of its pubs, The Red Lion in Prestwich and the Fairway Inn in New Moston, which kicked off their own collection drives.
“It’s fantastic that this is happening across the entire Holt estate as we`ve had the most amazing response, “ says Val Coyle, landlady of the Fairway Inn. “Since December we`ve had 60 bags of donations so I’m thrilled so many other pubs will now be following suit. A Joseph Holt pub is at the heart of the community so I know my colleagues will all be so keen to help.
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“One lady had never even been in before – yet sent us 25 pairs of brand-new gloves. We`ve even had people who have come into the pub to book funeral wakes in our function room and at the same time bring in the bereaved’s clothes.
“They felt so strongly these items must go to help others .I just feel this is such an important time to do this. So many people get new clothes for Christmas and may well be doing a clear out of their older stuff. So much of this can go to waste. It’s just important to put it to good use.”
The Red Lion’s landlady Alex Derbyshire added: “We already served free tea and coffee to people who were struggling – as a pub we could do that. So, extending that to collecting warm items for the homeless seemed such a natural step.”
The brewery is asking anyone with spare clothing to drop off at any of its pubs across Greater Manchester. The campaign follows Holts’ school uniform appeal, which helped families over the summer with paying for school clothing.
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