Fish and chip store affords 100 free Christmas meals in Southampton | EUROtoday

“It’s just a way of us giving back to the community,” says a fish and chip store proprietor, who’s giving freely 100 free meals on Christmas Eve.

Raj Khaira, from Southampton, has owned Top Catch fish and chips in Shirley for 5 years and says he desires to assist lonely individuals within the space.

He says he feels fortunate to have a giant household however is aware of for some prospects a dialog with a shopkeeper is likely to be the one one they’ve some days.

He says the store will give parts of sausage and chips to these in want as a means of “giving back to the people who haven’t got family around them and sometimes can’t afford a hot meal”.

Mr Khaira speaks about working in enterprise all of his life and the way a lot he enjoys assembly “different people every day, from different backgrounds”.

“I’ve done it since I was a young kid so it’s all I really know,” he says.

He provides that lots of his prospects are aged and should not have connections over the festive interval.

“Christmas for majority of us is probably going to be a joyful and busy day but for some people it’s probably going to be a quiet day,” he says.

After posting in regards to the plans to donate on social media he acquired plenty of publicity and Mr Khaira is ready to “probably do more than” 100 meals.

He says the store has already organised a toy and current drop off to Southampton hospitals this December, with most of the donations coming from prospects.

He says: “We’re only where we are as a busy shop because of our community and our lovely customers that come in and sometimes you’ve got to give back and I’m happy to do that.”

Looking again on a few of the unfavourable information reported in Shirley earlier this 12 months with the rise in anti-social behaviour within the space, he admits he had suffered.

His store window was smashed in the summertime, however he says: “Christmas time lets us just try and forget that for a minute and just try and have a good time, and reflect back on the year and hopefully next year is going to be a better one.”