Pub to hand out free Christmas meals to needy

The landlord of a Shropshire pub is set to give out free Christmas dinners to show his daughter that not everyone is as fortunate as her.

The New Inn, in Newport, will prepare and deliver about 30 lunches to vulnerable people on Christmas Eve, ready to be heated up on Christmas Day.

Matt Moulson said the meals would go to people who may not be able to afford to cook a large lunch, or who are too ill to do so.

"The pub is part of the community, we’re a small business, we don’t have investors, but our investors are our customers and all investments deserve something back," he said.

Mr Moulson, his partner and his three year-old daughter, Mabel, will deliver the meals by hand.

"We like to teach our daughter that not everybody is as lucky as her, so we try and take her to give presents out, and save things for other people and charities," he told BBC Radio Shropshire.

"[Mabel] will wear a Christmas dress that she calls a spinny dress, and she will have to show it off to each person that we go and visit, she likes giving people things," he said.

Mr Moulson said people could refer themselves or someone they know for a meal, but that they had limited capacity for numbers.

"We just have one car and two people delivering, and a certain amount of space to prepare that amount of food on Christmas Eve while all chaos is breaking out in the pub," he said.

"We’ll try and do as many as we can.

"The best way is to find us is on our Facebook page and message us privately, or they can pop an email to the pub, or ring the pub phone number."

Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.