Northampton fish and chip shop owner spreads the love this Valentine’s Day by donating food to homeless people

It is the season of love and one business owner helped spread love in the community by donating chips and vegetarian food to homeless people in Northampton.

Former Chronicle and Echo Chip Shop of the Year winner, Nick Panayis, from Nick’s Plaice, Kingsley, teamed up with volunteers from the Sikh Community Centre & Youth Club in Northampton to donate 35 portions of chips, vegetarian pies, battered mushrooms and cheese and onion croquettes to people in shelters and sleeping rough on the streets of the town centre.

On Sunday (February 13), the food was collected from the chip shop and donated to a winter shelter project, to people sleeping rough.

The food and hot drinks were gratefully received from trustee Amarjit Singh Atwal and treasurer Jagjit Singh Shari who, with a team of volunteers, have been serving food to the homeless for more than seven years.

Nick from Nick’s Plaice said: “As a business, we wanted to give something back to people in need.

“A lot of people supported us through Covid.

“We are a close-knit community in Kingsley and any small gesture we can make as a business to support people we will do.

“It’s easy to be kind to those we know and care about, but there are so many other people that could use kindness in their life.”

Amarjit added: “It’s great to partner with local businesses who donate food usually every six weeks for the project.”

One man sleeping rough, pointed to his sleeping bag outside a council building, indicating where he was to sleep that night, said the home-cooked food and take-aways were ‘crucial’ to his well-being and said a heartfelt ‘thank you.’

Another man in his sleeping bag in front of an office building in the rain, said ‘thank you’ for the chips and croquettes and said he was going to dispose of the box so as not to leave a mess when he disappeared in the early hours of the morning.