Giltbrook pub giving two families a Christmas dinner to remember

The Hayloft on Nottingham Road asked people to nominate a family who they feel deserves a Christmas treat this year in a time when the cost of living is still biting hard for many and many are struggling to afford Christmas.

And landlord Colin Meakin said they were inundated with nominations and stories of people deserving of the treat.

He said: “At The Hayloft it’s always been about the community and doing the right for thing for people.

"In the day, we have lots of community groups and people using the space free of charge.

“And that was the thinking for this.

"We’ve been fully booked for Christmas for a long time but unfortunately, one of those bookings has had to cancel.

“We’ve refunded them their money and we’re providing some free takeaway dinners for them too.

"But it freed up one of my tables but the thing was, I’d had to turn down a lot of people who wanted to book originally, so it didn’t seem right advertising it again and taking money for it.

"So in order to fill my dining room, it seem the right and only choice to give it to someone who really needs it because that’s what Christmas is all about, giving back.”

Colin and his wife Sandra asked for people to message them with nominations for people who they felt deserved the Christmas treat – a neighbour or loved one that you know is struggling or someone that had done a good turn – and they were blown away by the number received.

Colin continued: “It’s opened up a real issue for us because I’ve had that many proper heart-tugging stories, I could easily open up my entire dining room for people who deserved this.”

So remarkable was the response, Colin set about revising his table plan and was able find space for a second free table on Christmas Day to enable two families to enjoy a free dinner on the day.

He said: “I’m really struggling to choose the two families who will join us, I think I’ll have to just number each story and pick two at random.

"But this is what this pub is all about, we we’re going to have just one table, now we’re having two and that’s great.

"One person can’t mend everything but if everybody tries a little bit, we’ll help a lot more people and to me, that’s what being in business, especially in the pub industry, is all about.

"Throughout Covid, we were all saying support your local pub or you’ll lose it.

"Well we’re at the other end of that now and we’re now in the perfect position that we can support our community and we need to start pulling our community together become the central spot of what a pub should have been 20 years ago.”