New campaign to help feed Northampton sees charity donate roast dinners to town's most isolated

The entrepreneurs behind The Smoke Pit and Bite Street NN have a launched a new campaign to help feed people who are hungry this festive season.

Called 'Feed NN: Feeding the NNeighbourhood', it started last weekend with free roast dinners being handed out to people in need in Northampton.

Feed NN will be working alongside The McCarthy-Dixon Foundation, founded by the landlady of the Swan and Helmet, in Grove Road, Teresa McCarthy-Dixon, to help people in need in Northampton.

The landlady, who has been at the pub for 13-and-a-half years, said started her charity during the first lockdown and has helped to feed thousands of people through her foodbank.

Teresa's team of volunteers delivered the 25 meals on Sunday to older members of the community who were said they felt "spoilt" by the generosity shown.

Teresa said: "They donated 25 meals, which landed with me at about 6 o'clock and they went straight out to the community to certain groups we have been helping since last March.

"A lot of them are isolated and live on their own, they don't have a lot of family around.

"The feedback was amazing, they really felt spoilt, they were really appreciative and they smelt delicious, it was a real success and nice surprise as they did not know we were coming."

Teresa, who also teaches dozens of people to cook and budget for their weekly shop as part of her charity role and through her knowledge as a former chef, said she will consider handing the dinners out to different people each week.

On Sunday, James and Matt Ingram, the brothers who run The Smoke Pit, ran a Sunday lunch service using their outdoor smoker.

It featured four different kinds of smoked meat, onion seed Yorkshire Puddings, maple and sesame charred carrots, smokey gravy and a trio of sauces.

Bite Street boss Crispin Slee said: “We don’t want anyone to go hungry this Christmas so starting last weekend we’re going to be doing our bit to help out.”

James said: “For every Sunday lunch platter people bought, we have built a free meal for people in need.

“Each meal has five parts - meat, potatoes and three veg. Five platters makes one free meal. We'll add a Yorkshire pudding on the house.

“So when people were feeding themselves last weekend, they were also feeding someone in need.”

Matt Ingram added said: “This is just the start. We’ve got lots of other ideas and we’ll be backing a big fundraiser to help Feed NN next week.”