The big-hearted team at Greedy Gordons are helping to bring some Christmas cheer to everyone this festive season.
The Northamptonshire company, which runs an award-winning collection of pubs and venues in the county, is supporting community charities this season. The company also announced it has a cracker of a campaign for festive diners with the launch of The Greedy Gordons Golden Giveaway.
Richard Gordon, Director of Greedy Gordons, revealed the group’s popular pubs and venues, which include The Red Lion at Cranford, The Snooty Fox at Lowick, The Pig & Waffle in Grafton Underwood and the Buttery Café and Farm Shop in Woodford, all have designated donation stations collecting products for the Kettering Foodbank.
Richard said: “It is so important for us to be able to show our significant support for the Kettering Foodbank this December and well into 2025.
“We are proud all our pubs and venues have signposted, designated stations for donations, which our teams will collect and deliver to the food bank to help everyone be able to celebrate Christmas. We will continue to collect donations throughout January, February and March as there are so many people who rely on the incredible support the food bank provides, not just at Christmas, but all year round.
“While we started collecting donations in the run up to Christmas, the collections will continue into next year because more people make donations at Christmas but the food bank struggles in the following months, so we want to emphasise how important it is for people to keep donating into the new year and beyond.”
The Greedy Gordons food bank collections come at a crucial time for the charity, which predicts there will be an even greater need this festive season from the hundreds of people who receive the donations.
Jane Calcott, a trustee for Kettering Foodbank, said: “It’s brilliant what Richard is doing because it’s prior to Christmas and people are always generous. We always find it very difficult in late January, February and March when we have hardly anything coming in.
“So, the fact Richard is going to extend their collections into March will be absolutely wonderful for us. Demand is so great, so it will be amazing for us to have all the extra donations coming in during those leaner months. Richard is very good and has supported us with collections including through Covid times, he is a very kind man. He is very community minded, so it is great to have this help from him.”
Kettering Foodbank, an independent charity, ensures much-needed donations are distributed throughout the area. Jane explained how the food bank’s services cover a large area, serving 34 villages and towns in the region, regularly providing products to families and those in need.
She said: “It is a real mixture of people across the board who use our services because they are struggling and in need of help. At this time of year especially, families panic about not being able to afford toys for their children, or for food and heating.
“It is always going to be worse in December, however, every month for the past few months we have been giving out between £17,000 to £19,000 worth of food donations a month, that’s how big the need is, it’s massive. We expect that figure to increase significantly during December – our parcels really help and hundreds of people will benefit from donations.”
As well as supporting the Kettering Foodbank, Greedy Gordons has again pledged its support for the annual Boxing Day Squirt which takes place on December 26 in Richard’s home village of Geddington.
Every year families flock to the picturesque Northamptonshire village to see the squirt spectacle, which sees local firefighters battle it out in a water fight like no other!
Greedy Gordons will again be at the heart of the Boxing Day activities, where Geddington Volunteer Fire Brigade take on fellow firefighters from the region, attracting thousands of spectators each year.
Richard added: “We are thrilled once again to be able to support this fantastic fundraising event. The Kettering fire brigade and Geddington fire brigade have a stand-off over the bridge and squirt water at each other and thousands of people turn up. We are delighted to be donating all the food for the barbecue, all the burgers and bacon for rolls which they sell so they can make money that they put to local causes – it all goes to charity.”
Christmas will be a cracker this year for customers visiting the Greedy Gordons trio of pubs, which will be handing out 6,000 Christmas crackers with more than half of them concealing thousands of not-to-be-missed offers.
Richard said: “We will be handing out the crackers during December and there will be thousands of vouchers to redeem, including various discounts and offers on food and drink that can be redeemed in our pubs from January 2 until January 31.
“Randomly hidden within 3,500 of the crackers will 10 golden tickets which will go into a draw with the chance to win a £250 voucher. This is the first time we have done something like this on this scale and in total the thousands of vouchers we are giving away within the crackers are worth £50,000!
“It is all about giving back, and January is always a very difficult time for everyone after the expense of Christmas. We want to encourage people to visit our venues midweek and enjoy our great deals during January and it’s an opportunity to showcase what we offer.”
