This Manchester woman is hosting a free Christmas dinner for people in need
"This Christmas I desperately want to reach from the streets into people's homes, where individuals may be alone or struggling to bring us all together this Christmas time."
A woman from Manchester is hosting a free Christmas dinner this December to help people who are struggling to eat and heat their homes.
She’ll be paying for all the food herself, and says that anyone is welcome – be they struggling to feed their kids, heat their houses, dealing with insobriety, loneliness, or homelessness.
Typically she spends Christmas Day out on the streets handing out food to people sleeping rough but said this year she wanted to do something even bigger to make the most impact for those who need help most.
Antonia Gough quit her job three years ago to help Manchester’s homeless, founding Homeless House after receiving financial support from Boohoo.com and I SAW IT FIRST co-founder Jalal Kamani.
Since then, she’s worked tirelessly to better the lives of those less fortunate – and says that she fears this year people will be in more need than ever due to the rising cost of living.
Every day she’s out on the streets handing out breakfast to Manchester’s homeless, including on Christmas Day.
But last year, out of a desire to help even more people, she also organised for a Christmas dinner to be cooked and served to the some of the city’s most marginalised and vulnerable at The Arc, a charitable organisation based in Manchester on Robert Street on the same road as her offices.
This Christmas she is gearing up to do it again, buying all the food herself so that people who can’t afford a meal this year for their kids “because times are so tough”, or those that are sat at home on their own, can come and enjoy a hot meal and some festive cheer.
There will be carol singing, hot breakfast and dinner, free haircuts, and even an appearance from Santa.
Antonia says that Sainsbury’s has been in touch to offer donations of table dressings and more to make the space feel really festive, and she’s also had further support from The Arc, Delphi Medical, Acorn, CGL & Emerging Futures. .
She told The Manc: “I’m not going to have a booking system, it’s just a case of if you’re struggling to heat or eat please turn up.
“The street people will be there and those who are in rehab, those who might be going through insobriety, that are sat at home on their own on Christmas Day, anybody is welcome.”
“We’re going to do breakfast in the morning at eleven and those who want to stay for dinner, we’ve got some singers.
Explaining how she has been taken aback by the kind offers of help she’s received so far, she continued: “Manchester Theatre contacted me this week and said they’ll send, they’ve heard sorry by Business Growth in Manchester that’s what we’re doing and they want to send down the kids to sing some carols.
“Sainsbury’s has been in touch and the staff want to donate anything we might need, table cloths, that sort of thing, yeah so it’s coming together to think that happened over the space of three days this week.”
However, whilst she’s doing everything she can to pull the dinner together there are a few things that she needs help with – and is hoping that someone in the local community will come forward to lend a hand to help bring this year’s Christmas dinner to life.
As she only has one tiny domestic oven and is planning to cook dinner for at least 70 people, she tells us that she’s looking for someone to provide a kitchen, some staff to help cook the meals, and someone to assist her with the delivery of meals to The Arc.
She added: “The support over the last two years from the community and our local businesses has been nothing short of incredible, which has allowed us to help thousands of people.
“This Christmas I desperately want to reach from the streets into people’s homes, where individuals may be alone or struggling to bring us all together this Christmas time.”
If you would like to get involved and offer some help this Christmas, email [email protected] or send a direct message via social media on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.
Feature image – Supplied
Food & Drink
Prestwich wine bar Chin Chin now serves roast dinner sandwiches
Daisy Jackson
A new (ish) wine bar in Prestwich has launched one of the city’s coolest Sunday offerings – roast dinner sandwiches, with a side of jazz.
If I’ve said it once I’ve said it 1000 times – Elnecot is up there as one of Manchester’s best Sunday roasts, with Yorkshire puddings you could fit a jug of gravy inside, blushing slices of roast beef, and generous portions that put you in the sort of food coma you should be in on a Sunday afternoon.
So when Roast Master (okay fine, his official job title is chef/owner) Michael Clay said that his sister venue Chin Chin was launching a Sunday offering, I was there with my nose pressed up at the window. I’m ready, Michael.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin, right in the heart of Prestwich village, brings that incredible roast beef and roast potatoes into a more casual format.
You can tuck into roast meat butties, roast potatoes loaded with cheese and gravy, and ice cream sundaes, all while perusing a well-thought-out wine list that’s written up by hand every time new bottles come in.
Oh, and did we mention there are £4 pints all day on Sunday – and that includes Guinness?
On the side of just about everything on the menu, you’re presented with a little bowl of extra gravy (how delightfully Northern) for dipping and dunking.
Sunday Sessions at Chin Chin in PrestwichRoast beef sandwiches at Chin ChinLancashire cheese toastiesThe BifanaLoaded roastiesWine and vinyl recordsInside Chin Chin wine barThe wine list at Chin Chin
Our top pick would be the roast beef sandwich, served between ciabatta rolls and laced with mustard mayo and caramelised onions.
But the cheese toastie is worth a visit too – a hefty helping of Lancashire cheese and charred spring onions, with a ‘secret sauce’ on the side.
Coming soon will be a new menu item, a Bifana sandwich. If you’ve trudged the streets of Portugal you’ll have come across these – thin slices of pork marinated in white wine and garlic, piled into bread with a punchy mustard. Chin Chin’s are excellent.
And for afters, because there is always room for dessert, it’s a lovely ice cream sundae topped with miso caramel and a showering of pistachios.
The whole time you’ll be eating with a soundtrack of jazz, played through the wine bar’s vinyl record system and Michael’s own personal collection of vinyls.
Chin Chin is open now on Bury New Road, with food on Sundays served between 12pm and 6pm.
Drinking around the ‘Beermuda Triangle’ of brewery taprooms in Manchester
Daisy Jackson
If you’re looking for the best pints in Manchester, turn your ass around at the door of the pub and head to the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, a corner of the city centre where taprooms are king.
Our city has a great rep for craft beer and microbreweries, and a lot of these are concentrated in one brilliant, unexpected stretch of industrial estate.
Head beyond Manchester Piccadilly and you’ll find yourself in an area nicknamed the ‘Beermuda Triangle’, where tucked among tool shops and warehouses are breweries welcoming in thirsty punters.
These are places where you can sip on the freshest lagers, ales and sours, straight from the source.
As you kick back in one of these taprooms, you can see the brewers hard at work on their next creation, and see beers being canned before your eyes.
There are, of course, plenty of other taprooms and brewery-operated bars all over Greater Manchester, but if you want to minimise your step count and maximise your drinking time, this is where to head.
So we’ve gone out exploring the current residents on the Beermuda Triangle (I know, tough job) to give you the low-down for your next pub crawl.
All the taprooms on Manchester’s Beermuda Triangle
Cloudwater
When you think of craft beer, you probably think of these guys.
Since being founded in 2014, Cloudwater has gone on huge things and is now listed among the largest craft beer brands in the UK.
They’ve got their own pub (The Sadler’s Cat), a taproom down in London, and a huge brewery next-door to their taproom on the Piccadilly Trading Estate.
In here, it’s a stripped-back, Scandi-style interior upstairs, with a few extra tables squeezed in amongst oak barrels downstairs, plus a decent suntrap terrace out the front.
Our order? A pint of Fuzzy pale ale.
Track
Track TaproomTrack Taproom
Another big player in the craft beer game, Track’s taproom is comfortably one of Manchester’s coolest bars.
It’s a huge space, split between the actual brewery and the taproom, where beers are displayed on a rainbow-hued menu board and their own merch lines the walls.
With loads of plants, a leafy little beer garden, and a small kitchen that’s home to Slice Culture pizzeria, this one is the least rough-and-ready of all the taprooms on the Beermuda Triangle.
The most logical order here has, and will always be, Sonoma, they’re easy-drinking session pale ale available on both cask and keg – but there are always tonnes of other beers beyond their core range that are worth your attention.
Sureshot
Sureshot proves that you can take the art of brewing seriously but still have a laugh, with silly beer names and a giant bear mascot manically grinning at you as you sip your beer.
What’ll it be – a pint of ‘Wait… What?’, a schooner of ‘Small Man’s Wetsuit’, or a third of ‘Be Polite and Comb Your Hair?’.
They’re known for their hop-forward styles but are always dreaming up new creations and collaborations, like a recent sour with Bundobust, and collaboration with inclusive football club Manchester Lacesm with a donation of each ‘I Thought She Was A Pisces’ sold going to the club.
This one’s off the Piccadilly Trading Estate and is under the railway arches, handily with Nell’s next door who will deliver you a pizza while you’re on your taproom crawl.
Balance Brewing & Blending
The final stop on the Beermuda triangle is Balance, who specialise in barrel-fermented sours.
The taproom itself is a real looker, with fairy lights festooned overhead, a deep burgundy bar, and persian rugs thrown all over the concrete floors.
The beers here are all funky and punchy and well worth ordering a few testers of before you make your final decision.
Whatever you order, it’s going to have good British roots and a beautiful flavour.
Georgina Pellant -
4th November 2022 
