As the UK enters its coldest week in five years a restaurant chain has announced it will feed the homeless for free for the next seven days.
Franco Manca, which has 41 restaurants across the country, has pledged to give away 28,700 pizzas.
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The pizzeria is appealing for food banks, charities and shelters to contact them to organise distribution to rough sleepers.
A Franco Manca spokesman said: ‘With snow already falling and weather warnings rife, the UK is bracing itself for the coldest week so help fight the chill, our team want to help those most in need by offering free pizza for the duration of the week.
‘For people who are sleeping rough on the streets, struggling to cope with freezing temperatures is made even harder by constant hunger.’
He added: ‘This will be running all week and is available at Franco Manca restaurants nationwide, relevant organisations should email [email protected].
‘Also we want UK pizza fans to share their recommendations for pizza donations via the same email address or on social @francomancapizz.’
Concern for rough sleepers in freezing temperatures has led to a concerted effort to ensure there are emergency shelters open for the homeless.
Streetlink urged people to contact the charity if they see a homeless person in freezing conditions through its website or app and leave as many details as possible.
Matt Harrison, Director of StreetLink, said: ‘Sadly, the number of people sleeping on our streets has gone up every year since 2010.
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‘We launched StreetLink to harness the goodwill of the public, and since then it has had great success in linking thousands of people to vital local services, showing it to be an invaluable tool for helping to tackle rough sleeping.’
He added: ‘We’re asking people to download the app onto their phones, send an alert when they are concerned about someone sleeping rough and tell their friends and colleagues about StreetLink, so that together we can help support vulnerable people to get their lives back on track.’
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