Community hero gets £10,000 boost

Community events at an award winning pub have been given a £10,000 boost from Coca-Cola, following its success at the Great British Pub Awards.

The Old Abbey Taphouse in Hulme, Manchester, took the title of Community Hero at the GBPA and was presented with the £10,000 prize money recently.

The pub, which is run as a social enterprise, took home the title after impressing judges with an extensive range of community activities, offering  everything from a place of worship to conducting outreach work.

The pub is run by Rachele Evaroa and the £10,000 prize will be donated to Steam Hubs and Pubs, the social enterprise that runs the pub, to enable it to continue to play a vital role with community events.

The social enterprise works with the pub to feed 70 families each week for free through its Taphouse TV Dinners and other community projects such as CommuniTea, where locals can come together for a free tea or coffee and catch up. The donation will enable the pub to provide 5,000 meals and keep TV dinners running for a year. The community work the pub does each year costs £24,000.

The Old Abbey Taphouse also offer ‘pay what you can’ Curry Club on a Wednesday and quarterly feasts that support different charities on each occasion.

Rachele Evaroa, director of community and business for the pub, said: “This is a proud moment for us, our pub and our local area. Community is at the core of everything we do at the pub and we are so pleased that we can focus our efforts on delivering community events rather than raising funds.

“We pride ourselves on being a hub for the community and we see people of all ages visiting the pub for support – more so than ever amid the rising cost of living. A huge thank you to the team and our community for all their hard work to reach this point.”

Holly Firmin, Senior Community Partnerships Manager at Coca-Cola added: “It’s inspiring to see how pubs are continuing to support local people and good causes, at the height of the pandemic and now during the tough economic climate we’re all experiencing.

“We’re really pleased to be helping the team at The Old Abbey Taphouse and the wider community in Hulme. It’s fantastic to see how much this funding will enable the pub to continue to do for their community and we look forward to supporting the pub in the future.”