Yahoo Finance Leon stays open to provide NHS workers with half price meals
Fast food chain Leon is remaining open to serve takeaway and delivery meals to the UK public, despite strict new measures introduced to tackle the spread of coronavirus.
Leon is also giving all NHS staff a discount of 50%.
In a twitter post on Tuesday the restaurant said that it had served 13,843 takeaway and delivery meals to NHS workers in the last week alone.
Leon said it is giving all its employees the option to come into work or stay at home and that the company is assisting workers in accessing the government furlough scheme.
— LEON (@leonrestaurants) March 24, 2020
The scheme, announced by chancellor Rishi Sunak, plans to cover 80% of workers’ wages as part of the government’s “unprecedented” package of measures, designed to combat the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
Leon said that their decision to remain open is not based on financial reasons as staying open was actually costing the business more.
Read more: Overwhelmed hardship fund forced to turn away hospitality workers
The twitter post said: “Meals for the NHS and homeless are set to be the vast majority of our work.
“During this crisis, if we do by some strange accident make a profit all of it will be spent directly on feeding hospital teams.”
Many other chain restaurants, including McDonalds, Nando’s, Subway, and Pret A Manger, have closed indefinitely due to the coronavirus.
