Staff at a Walsall restaurant cooked up a tasty way to thank NHS heroes working on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic – by delivering fresh, tasty curry!
Dera Restaurant, in Caldmore Road, has been serving up Pakistani cuisine for nine years.
Like all restaurants, the impact of the COVID-19 has seen Dera shut its doors to diners, instead switching to a delivery service to provide food for those in lockdown.
But this month it made its most ambitious delivery ever, when it provided 100 meals for staff at the Manor Hospital.
“We have always tried to get involved in charity,” said owner Ahmed Nawaz, “and in the past we have provided food to the homeless, for instance.
“Everyone has seen the work being carried out by the staff in hospitals, and the risks they are taking to treat people with coronavirus, and I felt compelled to do something to say thank you.
“Everyone is taking part in the weekly applause to show support but I wanted to do something different, and I thought: ‘what better way than to provide them with a tasty, fresh dinner to help them recharge after all their hard work.”
So, on April 19, Ahmed and his team set about cooking 100 delicious Chicken biryani dishes, each one lovingly presented in their own box.
“I wanted to make sure that it was not too spicy, so that it was to everybody’s tastes,” he said, “and when I tasted it before we served it up it was perfect.”
The meals were then packaged up and delivered straight to staff at the hospital.
“They went straight there and were piping hot and fresh when we handed them out,” Ahmed said. “The doctors and nurses were incredibly grateful, and I was told later that within half an hour it was all gone – so it must have been popular!”
Now Ahmed is planning to repeat the exercise for the holy month of Ramadan.
“Ramadan is about to start, when Muslims go the whole day without eating, and it dawned on me that if there are staff at the Manor who are fasting then there won’t necessarily be any food available for them when they break their fast.
“After a long and tiring shift, they will need fresh food, so I have been in touch and said that we can arrange to bring in food for people to eat at the time.
“It’s the least we can do given the sacrifices the NHS staff are making. The whole of the Walsall community is pulling together – and this is just our small part of that.”