Gavin price, pub partner, scotland

All across the UK, our pubs provided support to their communities during the pandemic. At The Fountain in Aberfeldy, licensee Gavin Price’s efforts saw him win awards, including an MBE.

 

Perthshire; one at either end of the town, and The Fountain Bar & Restaurant, which is right in the centre. I’m also a professional football manager for Scottish League 2 team, Elgin City FC, so the first sign that Covid-19 was going to affect us was when football stopped the week before the first lockdown was announced. I could see the pubs were going to shut, so we cooked up the food sitting in our fridges and delivered meals to 10 elderly residents the day before the official announcement.

We’re in a very rural area – the nearest city is Perth, 35 miles away – and there were people in Aberfeldy and surrounding villages who were already self-isolating back in March 2020. And people are isolated enough here as it is, so I was worried how those in older households would cope. Myself and one of my managers, Julie, felt that providing meals to the vulnerable over 70s here was essential. And that’s how Feldy-Roo was born (the name was Julie’s spin on Aberfeldy Deliveroo).

From pub to hub

When we first delivered meals we were filmed doing it and the video went online. The next day we delivered to 20 homes. The day after it was 40. By the end of the week it was 100. We had flyers printed and local schoolkids delivered them for us. We also posted on social media and had messages back from people living miles away asking if we could add their mum and dad to our delivery list because they couldn’t visit due to the travel ban and were worried about how their elderly parents were going to eat.

Feldy-Roo took on a life of its own. We had donations of toilet rolls, sanitiser, PPE, baby wipes, jigsaws, puzzle books… you name it. The Fountain went from being a pub to a hub: it looked like a warehouse. The generosity was staggering and in a few weeks we had a full-blown delivery service up and running thanks to the many volunteers who came forward to help us. We got branded hoodies and t-shirts made so we could properly form a team and ensure our volunteers were instantly recognisable to the folk receiving the meals. And quite quickly we realised we couldn’t do this alone; we needed to get other businesses involved.

Two meals a day

We planned and co-ordinated everything from here and eventually had a network of about 140 volunteers helping with the cooking, packaging and delivery of hot meals around Highland Perthshire. It was amazing how everyone in the town, including local businesses, came together. Our chefs cooked meals like fish and chips and steak pies four nights a week while the Indian restaurant did curries on a Monday and other restaurants did fantastic roasts and other dishes. The local Co-op donated free desserts and cafes and food businesses provided lunch, or the funds to provide a free newspaper and cake.

At Feldy-Roo’s peak we delivered two meals a day to 250 homes across a 30-mile radius. As restrictions dragged on, we needed proper funding to keep going. We put a separate committee in charge of fundraising, and again, local businesses stepped up.

We were also lucky to receive substantial grants from SSE Renewables, The National Lottery and local funding bodies, which alongside our own imaginative fundraising efforts, brought in over £200,000 in total. But also crucial was the rent support we received from Greene King: we got 90% discount after the first 12 weeks of lockdown and that carried on throughout the pandemic. It was a real lifeline: we would’ve gone under, I think, if it hadn’t been for that support and we wouldn’t have been able to keep providing that vital service for our community.

Community at work

By spring 2021, we’d planned, cooked, packed and delivered over 50,000 meals. And while Feldy-Roo was brilliant for our vulnerable residents, we all benefited, because the camaraderie was fantastic and we had some really good laughs along the way. I hate to admit it but before the pandemic I’d probably have passed other business owners in the street, but thanks to Feldy-Roo, we now know we can work well together.

It was great to be recognised with things like the Great British Pub Awards and Greene King’s Pub Hero of the Year and be given an MBE (which I’m embarrassed about, if honest), but Feldy-Roo wasn’t about prizes and pats on the back; it was about doing our best for our community. We used the award money to pay for the town’s historic drinking fountain to be renovated, so everyone here can benefit. It’ll be a nice reminder of how we all came together during a difficult time.