A woman who spent time in a homeless hostel, is lending a hand to others in the same boat.
Amy Parry, now 29, found herself continually sofa-surfing at friend’s houses when she was just 16 years old.
With sheer determination and support from her friends and charities, Amy worked her way up from waitress to business development manager at Tariff & Dale in the Northern Quarter.
She said: “I was 16. I could only cook tuna pasta and had absolutely no idea how to look after myself.
“At one point, I managed to get a council house and get a part-time job in a clothes shop but I was only young and still trying to pay the rent on my own.
“I’m quite a strong person but I had no stability for several years. A lot of the people on the streets round here are normal people who’ve suddenly found themselves in a bad situation.
“I’ve seen how quickly lives can deteriorate and spiral out of control. It’s frightening and it’s true what they say – you’re literally a pay check away from being homeless.”
Now Tariff & Dale has joined a social enterprise scheme called Foodinate, which allows restaurants to select meals from their menu to brand as ‘Foodinate’, thereby ensuring that every Foodinate-branded meal enjoyed by a customer results in a meal for a local person in need.
When a customer buys a meal with the Foodinate logo, the restaurant covers the cost of a hot, nourishing meal to be served to a local person in need at the city’s Booth Centre.
The popular eatery is offering three participating deals on its menu – two main meals and a lighter bar snack – antipasti – so people can, whatever their appetite, help support Manchester’s homeless people.
“We did like the idea of giving something back to the community, but we didn’t know what we could do to help the homeless – that’s why we were so pleased to get onboard with this as it’s such a great scheme,” Amy added.
Caroline Stevenson, who founded Foodinate in 2016, said she was thrilled that Tariff & Dale had joined the scheme, along with The Lead Station in Chorlton and both of the city’s Crazy Pedro’s branches.
And she’s urged other bars and restaurants to get onboard.
“The response from staff at Tariff & Dale has been amazing and already, Amy and the team have sold 180 Foodinate meals – and they’ve only been part of the scheme for a month so far. This has helped us smash our target of providing 10,000 meals to people in need across the UK by the end of the year.”
Last year, Foodinate was whittled down from 800 entrants to win the RBS and Entrepreneurial Spark 2016 ‘Boost a Business award’ – and Caroline even had the pleasure of meeting Leonardo DiCaprio.
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