Closed curry house donates leftover stock to homeless charities in Northampton

A Northampton curry house that has temporarily closed due to the coronavirus pandemic has donated its leftover produce to two local homeless charities – and has urged others to do the same.

Saffron, in Castilian Street, Northampton, took the decision to close on Wednesday night in the interests of staff and their families.

The sudden closure left them with a surplus of stock, including fresh meat and poultry, fruit and vegetables.

But now, the restaurant has now donated the produce to the Hope Centre and Northampton Night Shelter, both of whom were running short on supplies.

Managing Director Naz Islam, said: “This is a time of national emergency. It is a time for helping the most vulnerable members of our community.

“We did our best to help the real heroes in all of this by originally offering half-price food for the NHS workers who are doing such an incredible job in the frontline, day in, day out.

"Sadly, we have now had to take the decision to close so as to protect our own staff and their families and do our bit to prevent the spread of infection.

“There’s no way we could have let the leftover stock go to waste so donating it to two brilliant local charities is another way of helping the community. I would encourage all local food businesses in a similar position to do the same and we are happy to act as a central collection point for this before handing over to the charities.”

Saffron received a handwritten personal letter from Andrew Lewer, Conservative MP for Northampton South, thanking the restaurant for its efforts in supporting emergency services working during the coronavirus outbreak.

For more information, please call the restaurant on 01604 630800.