Fire & Dough cooked up hundreds of pizzas for homeless and vulnerable people in Newcastle city centre
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Hundreds of homeless and vulnerable people in Newcastle city centre received freshly made pizzas from a North East business after LooseFest was cancelled.
Pizza van Fire & Dough had been prepared to serve festival goers all weekend, but when the heavy rain cancelled the event, co-owners Ross Keady and John Nicholson were determined not to let their dough go to waste.
The pair reached out to The People's Kitchen on Bath Lane, which serves around 250 meals to those in need every night, and offered to cook for the charity.
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John, 30, said: "Around 10 minutes before we were due to start serving, LooseFest was cancelled because of the rain. Then on Sunday, we were due to cook at Huddersfield Live and it was the same story.
"We were expecting to serve over 1,000 pizzas over the weekend."
Fire & Dough visited People's Kitchen on Monday, August 7 when they made more than 200 wood-fired pizzas to order and even returned on Wednesday, August 9, to do it once again.
John added: "It is a no-brainer if you get the opportunity to help out and make a difference to people around you."
Charity trustee Maggie Pavlou, from Chester-le-Street, was delighted with the gesture which comes as demand for the service continues to rise.
"They had all their dough prepared and ready to go for LooseFest and it wouldn't keep so they rang us up asking if they could bake fresh pizzas for our friends," she said.
"They had a fabulous reaction. It was a really nice treat and something different from what we would normally cook."
Maggie continued: "We are seeing a tremendous number of people coming through the doors now from all walks of life. People who were just about able to make ends meet are no longer able to.
"These are tough times and people don't have the same money to give so we are super grateful for any donations from the public and businesses as well. We are just run on volunteers and donations, we don't get any funding."
Donations can be made on The People’s Kitchen website www.peopleskitchen.co.uk/donate/
