GBPA

CCEP pledges thousands to Community Hero pubs

24-May-2023 - Last updated on 25-May-2023 at 12:03 GMT

Cash help: the Last Post in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees has previously received the funds, which have helped the pub reach even further into its community

Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP) will be giving £15,000 to this year’s Community Hero finalists at the 2023 Great British Pub Awards, for the pubs to donate to good causes.

Each pub shortlisted in the category will be given £1,000 and the winner will receive £10,000 to be donated to causes close to their hearts.

The awards are currently open for entry but the deadline is looming as it closes this Sunday (28 May) so to be in with a chance of being named best in the country, enter now.

The Last Post Memorial Bar in Thornaby, Stockton-on-Tees has been a finalist more than once in the awards. Owner Julia Cooper outlined how the funds donated by CCEP had impacted her business.

Massively positive impact

She said: “We were lucky enough to get through to the Great British Pub Awards shortlist twice and the funds won each time has helped us reach out even further into our community.

“We have been able to help many people and it has had a massively positive impact on everything we do for charity, including more recently enabling us to run a Pensioners Bingo every Wednesday, as well as veterans’ meetings offering tea, coffee and snacks each week for free.”

Last year, the pub took a number of its patrons on a day trip to Whitby with the bus and afternoon lunch having been funded by the prize money.

Increased footfall

Cooper added: [This] helped those living alone and isolated enormously. We’ve continued this and this year, we managed to offer two trips – some of our pensioners had not been out of our town before!

“The publicity that came from Great British Pub Awards has helped raise our profile enormously and people have visited from far and wide to see who we are.

“In hard times like the past few years, it has had a very positive impact on our business, bringing footfall from all over England – we are definitely on the map now and our community events have got bigger and bigger!”

The Pitymee Inn, Wadebridge, Cornwall was a finalist in the Community Hero category last year and operator of the pub Chris Black highlighted how it has utilised the funds donated by CCEP.

He said: "We really enjoy being part of our community and supporting local causes is very important to us.

"Previously we have raised funds for local preschools and food banks. With the money we won from the Great British Pub Awards, we donated to The Wave Project, which supports children's mental health using surf therapy.

"It is a great cause that really benefitted from the donation of £1,000 and was a great way for us to support them."

The 2022 Community Hero winner was the Lion in Treorchy, Rhondda, which donated its £10,000 to Love Treorchy, funding a loyalty scheme for local shops, the town’s annual Christmas parade, five Santa’s grottos and more.

As well as the Community Hero, the full list of categories are: