Wetherspoons game sees 300 meals ordered for Birmingham's homeless

Chris Illman is the founder of The Wetherspoons Game run through a Facebook group with 500,000 members

Around 300 meals have been sent to a man's table in Wetherspoons as part of a drinking game which aimed to feed the homeless.

Kind strangers ordered hundreds of portions of burgers and chips to Chris Illman's table at The Briar Rose pub in Birmingham on Monday.

Mr Illman said his followers ordered the meals within 33 minutes after he had posted an appeal online.

The meals went to homeless charities in Birmingham, he added.

Mr Illman is the founder of the viral Wetherspoons game, run through a Facebook group which has more than 500,000 members.

Participants sit down at a table in one of their pubs, take a photo of themselves and their table number, before posting it on the dedicated Facebook group.

Strangers in the group then use the pub's app to order and pay for drinks or a meal.

Chris Illman, left, had posted an appeal to feed Birmingham's homeless online

Mr Illman said it was an "absolutely amazing" night which had "sold the pub out."

"Everyone was so happy and buzzing," he told BBC Radio WM, "Everyone was so willing to help out."

He had asked the group to order the meals and drinks to donate to those who were homeless, before the Wetherspoon's app crashed due to the demand.

"In the end it took 33 minutes to get 300 burger and chip meals, I reckon if we didn't crash it we'd have had it all done within 10 minutes easily," he said.

The point of the game was "to get as many people as fed as possible," he added.

However, he said it "doesn't really scratch the surface", given the scale of homelessness in the city.

But raising awareness was "priceless," he added.

"You can't put a price on that.

"If it inspires one person, it's worth it."