Coronavirus: the positive hospitality industry moves

- Healthy food and juice chain Crussh has joined the #FeedNHS campaign, and started delivering 2,000 hot meals a week to staff at the Royal Marsden Hospitals in Chelsea and Sutton. The brand had already been delivering bottles of cold press juices to NHS workers at Kings College Hospital in London since the beginning of the month, but said it wanted to do more to help. “Our Cold Press juices were so well received for being refreshing and healthy, but we just felt we needed to do more,” says Nick Nathan, Crussh supply chain and operations director. “It’s not only important that the NHS workers are fed, but that they’re also provided with nutritious and well balanced food, to help keep them fit and healthy; that’s definitely where we can help.”

- Tech provider Access Hospitality has curated a guide to assist operators in preparing their business for reopening once lockdown restrictions begin to ease. The guide provides a planning checklist to help steer operators through work that can be carried out whilst the venue is closed; factors to consider in the three-four weeks prior to reopening; and how they might shape their business in the first week of operation.  The guide also goes on to consider how the hospitality landscape might have changed once they do reopen to stimulate further discussion, and preparation for a new-look world in which social distancing may become more normal. To view the guide, click here​​.

- Camden Town Brewery has launched an auction for ‘the most valuable pint of Camden Hells, with proceeds going to Hospitality Action’s Coronavirus emergency fund. Consumers can bid through Twitter, and the winner, whose bid will be donated to the fund and matched by Camden Town Brewery, will get a pint of Hells poured fresh outside their house and delivered two metres from their door. The auction closes on Sunday (26 April); to make a bid, head to the Camden Hells Twitter page​​.

- Meanwhile, Leeds-based craft brewery North Brewing Co has adapted the way it supports the charity Action Against Hunger during the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic. It says it is now adding a £2 donation to home delivery orders in its local area. The money raised will enable Action Against Hunger to continue its mission to end world hunger, all while supporting vulnerable communities through the Covid-19 outbreak.

- London-based corporate catering business turned meal delivery service POW Food has pledged to provide 600 free meals a week to help feed both NHS workers and vulnerable individuals and families stuck in isolation as a result the Coronavirus lockdown. The company, which is run by mother and daughter team Ali and Emily Warburton, will be donating two free meals for every one that is ordered by its customers. Rather than delivering the meals to NHS staff at hospitals, POW says it will deliver them to their respective homes. It will also work to deliver meals to those who are isolated and vulnerable through its partnership with London-based food redistribution charity City Harvest.