Family restaurant Lunya launches meals on wheels service – and it’s free for NHS workers

The restaurateurs behind Deansgate eatery Lunya have announced the launch of a new meals on wheels service.

They have said that local front line NHS workers will be able to access the service for free to support them and their families as they work tirelessly to save lives amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

Their Manchester and Liverpool restaurants are now temporarily closed following government orders given on Friday, as is the Manchester deli which shut its doors at 3pm on Saturday 21st.

But people can still order their favourite Lunya dishes and a new selection of home-cooked Catalonian comfort food in the form of refrigerated or frozen meals that can be reheated at home.

Dishes available will include the likes of garbanzos, patatas bravas, cottage pie, lasagne and albondigas pasta bake and will be “very modestly priced – definitely not restaurant prices.”

Delivery will be contact-free and see staff adopt strict sanitation measures that will include staff wearing gloves and sanitising their hands before touching any containers and packaging.

Meals will come with full ingredient and allergen labelling as well as reheating and cooking instructions and be delivered using the business’s own drivers and van. Delivery will be free for orders over £20.

Making the announcement, Lunya’s owners added: “Can we take this opportunity to wish all of our beautiful customers the very best of health during this dreadful time. If there is anything we can do, that we can possibly help with, please just ask. We are delivering into each city each week, we are opposite a big Tesco’s […] if you are unable to get out.”

The move comes as many restaurant businesses consider converting to takeaways to help them to keep revenue coming in.

I don’t think @10DowningStreet will ever see this, but who knows if it gets retweeted enough. A letter to the Prime Minister pic.twitter.com/6NOoh9G1h6

— Lunya (@Lunya) March 18, 2020

The family-run business made headlines last week after co-founder Peter penned an impassioned letter to the Prime Minister asking for the government to provide more support to the hospitality sector as he criticised the offer of loans as insufficient.

Within two hours of the letter being sent, it was read out at the Treasury Select Committee by Labour MP and Lunya regular Alison McGovern.

Come Friday, the Chancellor had announced that previously announced loans were to become grants in an effort to greater support hospitality businesses.

Orders can be made by contacting Lunya directly on [email protected]. Manchester deliveries will be managed once a week on Thursdays, beginning with a two-hour window.

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