The Big NHS Lunch Box is aiming to get lunch to healthcare workers who may otherwise not stop

The Big NHS Lunch Box

A group of friends who wanted to do their bit to help those on the front line have handed out more than 11,000 lunches to ensure workers can eat while they battle Covid-19.

Paddy Doyle, Rob and Natalie Garbutt of Lunar Green set up The Big NHS Lunch Box, aimed at a lunch to healthcare workers who may otherwise not stop to get one. After investing £4,000 to get the scheme going, they enlisted friends Rachael and Liam King, who own two Subway franchises, to help them prepare and deliver the lunches across Greater Manchester and Cheshire.

Since the scheme began donations have flooded in with more than £33,000 raised. Last month, the scheme donated 50 sub sandwiches and cookies to the Rochdale Infirmary.

Rob Garbutt said: “It has been a real journey for us. Back in March we saw in the media the NHS frontline working around the clock doing amazing things at the hospitals when the pandemic began and they just were not getting lunch, so we put two and two together with Liam and Rachel who offered to open up their kitchens to us and we are now doing 500 subs a day.”

Rob's wife Natalie reached out to other parents in the school’s WhatsApp group asking for donations and spoke to those of them who worked in the NHS to ensure the donations went where they were needed.

The scheme has been so successful it has now expanded to The Big Care Home Lunch Box, with eight homes across Greater Manchester benefiting from the free food.