St Albans soup charity benefits from cancelled Christmas meal

ADS Digital donated 24 three-course Christmas dinners with all the trimmings from the Tewin Bury Farm Hotel in Welwyn on Saturday night

A firm that donated all the food from its Christmas party after cancelling it due to Covid concerns said it "felt like it was meant to be".

ADS Digital in St Albans collected 24 three-course meals and took them to a charity in the city on Saturday night.

At the time, St Albans Action for Homeless (SAAFH) was having a record night for people turning up for its soup run and had just run out of food.

"It was fate that extra food arrived," the Hertfordshire charity said.

ADS Digital, which is based on Holywell Hill, was due to have its office Christmas meal in Welwyn on Saturday and had paid a £2,000 deposit .

Director, Alex Kosh, said when he booked the function, the pandemic was at its lowest point for infections.

"As the date got closer and cases were on the rise I was getting nervous about 24 of us being together," he said.

SAAFH said it had a record number turning up for food on Saturday night and would have run out without the extra meals

He decided to cancel the meal and, unable to get a refund at such a late stage, on Saturday he put a plea on social media for ideas of how the food could be best used.

SAAFH said he could take it to one of their regular soup runs and the hotel cooked and packed the festive takeaway.

Alex Kosh from ADA Digital said those receiving the food were "over the moon"

General manager, Salem Retibi, said it had taken a lot of cancellations in the past couple of weeks so "rather than it going to waste we've been giving food to local charities".

Mr Kosh said when he arrived in St Albans with the food "about 15 people were queuing and they were over the moon".

"The charity told me they had about 30 people to feed on Saturday when they usually have about 15, so they would have run out of food," he said.

"It felt like it was meant to be.

"Everyone is struggling at the moment... it was the very least we could do."

SAAFH community action officer, Sharon Linney, said they had started serving food at 20:00 GMT and had run out 10 minutes later.

"I've never seen so many people on the soup run before, so it was fate," she said.

"It was brilliant; it all went and the food was amazing as well.

"If anyone else is in the same situation, contact us, we can always use any extra food."

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