A Bristol pub has opened on the day of the Queen's Funeral - but as a food bank instead of a sports bar. The Hall Pass bar in the city centre has free essential food for anyone who needs it until 8pm today - Monday, September 19 - in response to the Queen's Funeral being a bank holiday.
Faced with either not opening at all or closing for some of the day, boss Mark Harris decided to do something a bit different, and set up a pop-up foodbank in the Small Street bar and venue. The pub boss said he wanted to do something because he'd heard some of the city's foodbanks were closing - along with many of the supermarkets and shops for the sombre bank holiday.
Mr Harris opened the foodbank at 3pm today, Monday, and donated the first £100 of food, but was keen for people to come in and donate more, as well as anyone who needed food to come in and take what they needed.
Read more: How Bristol marked the Queen's Funeral day
He was was aided in the set-up by his two children, Ellis and Layla. "While we have the absolute love and respect for the Queen's funeral and totally respect companies wanting to close for it, we cannot see families go hungry with the food banks being closed," said Mr Harris. "So we have decided to open the bar for a food bank. All staple foods will be available from 3pm.
"We are donating the first £100 worth of food but we are asking from 2pm to drop in any unwanted food that another family may benefit from," he said, adding that he wanted 'no family to go hungry'. "It may be your best friend or family in need of just a little something to eat," he added.
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