Cheers! Wakefield pub donates full stock to courageous frontline workers

A pub has been helping spreading some boozy cheer by delivering beer hampers to community heroes.
Watch more of our videos on Shots! 
and live on Freeview channel 276
Visit Shots! now

Like all watering holes, the Butchers Arms in Wakefield has been forced to closes its doors until the COVID-19 pandemic passes, but landlady Jade Tomlinson was eager to help keep spirits up.

Regulars have been asked to nominate through the pub’s Facebook page the frontline key workers who they think deserve the alcoholic treats, and the family have been buy assembling and delivering the packages.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

They have already taken their ‘dry stock’ - the remaining nuts and crisps from behind the bar - to one of the wards at Pinderfields, with the remaining bottled stock shared among the nominees. With ongoing uncertainties surrounding when the Stanley Road pub will be to open up again, and with little hope of selling the beer stocks, they decided to simply give it away.

Staff from the Butchers Arms in Wakefield are handing out hampers to heroes working for the NHS.  Pictured with them is six-year-old Kieron Deerden with his rainbow picture.Staff from the Butchers Arms in Wakefield are handing out hampers to heroes working for the NHS.  Pictured with them is six-year-old Kieron Deerden with his rainbow picture.
Staff from the Butchers Arms in Wakefield are handing out hampers to heroes working for the NHS. Pictured with them is six-year-old Kieron Deerden with his rainbow picture.

Mrs Tomlinson, who took on the pub as a freehold in January 2018, said: “It was my husband’s idea, we had all this excess stock just sitting around that we’re probably not going to be able to sell once we re-open.

“So we put the post on our business page and thought it might help brighten someone’s day if we could donate them.”

Mrs Tomlinson said they have had quite a mix of key workers nominated including the Yorkshire Air Ambulance Service, local police officers, care home workers, carers and with Pinderfields just a stone’s throw away, several medical staff from the hospital.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Each of them have received a hamper including a mixture of bottles including wine, Prosecco, various lager and even Champagne.

Kieron Deerden (6).Kieron Deerden (6).
Kieron Deerden (6).

And for those who don’t drink, there have even been bottles of alcohol-free beers added to the hampers.

So far 15 have been delivered and with most of the stock now given away, only one hamper’s worth of drinks is still available for a deserving nominee.

To nominate for the final hamper, log onto the pub’s Facebook page.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Mrs Tomlinson added: “We did not expect to get that many people being nominated.

“I believe these people deserve some recognition for their amazing work helping out wherever they can.

“It’s great that it could go to people who really deserve it otherwise it could have gone to waste.

“Like a lot off pubs we tried to set up a takeaway service (when the lockdown began) but we just can’t compete with supermarket prices so it did not work out.”

With huge emphasis being placed on social distancing, pubs were among the first businesses that the Government forced to shut when the coronavirus began to spread rapidly last month .

Related topics: