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This October, Eat Well MCR is bringing back Eat Well, Do Good, a city-wide initiative inviting people to support local hospitality and help provide meals for those who need them most.
Throughout the month, restaurants, bars, and venues across Greater Manchester will raise funds for Eat Well MCR by donating a portion of proceeds, creating special dishes or drinks, or hosting fundraising events. For the public, it’s a win-win: enjoy the best of Manchester’s hospitality scene and, at the same time, support a cause that helps feed people facing tough times.
At the heart of this initiative is Eat Well MCR, a local charity powered by chefs, restaurants, and volunteers who believe that good food should be a right, not a privilege. Working with grassroots organisations, they deliver nutritious, chef-made meals to families in temporary housing, women in refuges, children supported by schools and food banks, and many others navigating tough times.
The aim is to offer respite and a moment of care through the provision of delicious, high-quality food, fighting food inequality and waste in the process.
The story behind Eat Well MCR and Eat Well, Do Good
Eat Well MCR Founders: Mary-Ellen McTague and two friends, Gemma Saunders and Kathleen O’Connor in March 2020
“We wanted to share hospitality with people who wouldn’t normally have access to it,” explains chef and restaurateur Mary-Ellen McTague, who co-founded Eat Well MCR with friends Gemma Saunders and Kathleen O’Connor during the first Covid lockdown in 2020. “This is all about giving people something comforting, made with care. Good food can be good for the soul as well as the body.”
Back in March 2020, when lockdown forced Mary-Ellen’s restaurant to close, she was faced with the prospect of throwing away huge amounts of food. She’d already worked with food waste projects before, and the thought of bins overflowing with perfectly good produce horrified her.
Mary-Ellen McTague
Mary-Ellen McTague
“I realised we were going to have to close, and I thought, oh my God, all this food is going in the bin. And then I thought about all the pubs, cafes, restaurants, there was going to be so much waste. At that time food banks could only accept packaged food, and restaurants don’t work like that,” she recalled. “So I thought: I need to do something.”
What began as a small effort, cooking meals for NHS staff, quickly snowballed. A call-out on social media brought floods of donations from restaurants forced to shut their doors. Soon her restaurant kitchen was full of ingredients, and chefs across Manchester offered to help.
Working away during Lockdown
“I suddenly had a restaurant absolutely packed full of food. So I posted again: can anyone help me cook it? And loads of chefs turned up. At first we cooked just for NHS staff, but before long we were working with the council on their emergency food response, making thousands of meals every week.”
“We ended up supplying meals to NHS staff, homeless people temporarily housed in hotels, women’s refuges, families in hospital accommodation, and food banks”
The group soon found themselves supplying meals not only to NHS staff, but to homeless people temporarily housed in hotels, women’s refuges, families in hospital accommodation, and food banks. “It was a whole new world to me. I didn’t know much about that world at all, but we realised this wasn’t going anywhere, even when restrictions lifted.”
Volunteers at Eat Well MCR
At first, the team cooked with whatever restaurants had donated: often high-end ingredients from shuttered kitchens. “We were sending out things like pork belly with truffles, and people hated it!” Mary-Ellen laughed. “Some people were like: what the hell is this? We quickly realised people didn’t want cheffy food, they wanted comfort food, curries, stews, shepherd’s pie, things everyone recognises. So I had to tell these amazing chefs: tone it down, we need simpler meals. And they absolutely got it, there was no ego, just a real desire to help.”
That generosity and lack of ego struck Mary-Ellen deeply. “Chefs often have a reputation for being hot-tempered or egotistical. What I saw was the complete opposite. People were kind, generous, and community-minded.”
Hospitality during lockdown
The Diecast team make 200 beef bourguignons for Eat Well MCR
She remembers how meaningful it was for chefs to cook for people outside the walls of their own restaurants. “So much of hospitality is about taking care of people. During lockdown, the chefs told me it was amazing to cook for people they’d never normally meet, to provide hospitality in the truest sense.”
Since those early months, Eat Well MCR has become a permanent fixture. In just five years, they’ve provided more than 130,000 meals. But more than numbers, the initiative has fostered a new kind of community among Manchester’s hospitality industry.
How many meals have Eat Well MCR provided?
Deb-Burton-made-an-impressive 500 Christmas Dinners for Eat Well MCR last year
Mary-Ellen described how restaurants are usually isolated worlds. “When you run a restaurant, you’re there more than you’re anywhere else. It becomes your whole world. You don’t have much time to connect with others in the industry. Through Eat Well, I’ve met so many friends and colleagues. We’ve built a network that didn’t exist before.”
This sense of connection carries over to Eat Well’s annual fundraising drive. Last year, Eat Well, Do Good ran for just a week. It raised £8,600, enough to fund 4,300 meals, with 32 venues taking part, serving up extraordinary dishes, hosting pop-up events, and raising money through inventive activities.
A pic from an Eat Well MCR Fundraiser at MANA
“Last year was amazing, but we realised lots of people wanted to join in and couldn’t fit it into the week. So this year we’re running it for a whole month,” said Mary-Ellen. “The idea is that everyone does what they can, whether that’s adding a voluntary donation to bills, hosting a special event, or creating a dish with a small contribution built in. Lots of little efforts come together to make a big impact.”
Participating venues already confirmed include Lina Stores, Maray, Stow, Bar Renae, 10 Tib Lane, Chorlton Cheesemongers, Jefes Barbers, Hello Oriental, and Louis Restaurant, which will launch the initiative with a special event on 30th September. More restaurants are expected to join, and Eat Well MCR welcomes any Greater Manchester business to get involved.
“I believe in fairness and equity. Everyone should have access to good, nutritious food”
For Mary-Ellen, the motivation behind all this hard work is simple. “I believe in fairness and equity. Everyone should have access to good, nutritious food. Not everyone needs to be eating in three-star Michelin restaurants, but everyone should have the dignity of choosing healthy, enjoyable meals. The fact that this isn’t the case is a policy choice, and it’s wrong.”
At the heart of it, she said, is a love of hospitality. “I like taking care of people. I love running restaurants, seeing people have a nice time, making food that’s been cooked with care. That’s what Eat Well is all about, sharing that hospitality with people who might not otherwise experience it.”
Jay Rayner’s review of Pip
Mary-Ellen McTague works with Pip
Amid the whirlwind of Eat Well MCR, Mary-Ellen has also had personal highs. Recently, her restaurant Treehouse received a glowing review from Jay Rayner in the Financial Times, published on her birthday, no less. “It was pretty nail-biting waiting for that review to come out. When it did, it felt like such a gift. Then the next day, we found out we’d been added to the Michelin Guide. It was an incredible week.”
Even in those moments of professional triumph, she remains grounded. “Honestly, people think chefs are all ego. But what I’ve seen through Eat Well is just how generous and kind this community is. Every year we go back to ask for help again, and every year we’re blown away by how willing people are to get involved.”
As October approaches, Manchester’s hospitality scene is once again preparing to put its creativity and generosity to work. The month-long Eat Well, Do Good will see chefs, bartenders, bakers, and restaurateurs uniting not just to serve memorable meals, but to support people across the city who need them most.
“It’s about everyone doing what they can,” Mary-Ellen reflected. “Hospitality is a tough industry. Finances are tight, time is short. But if everyone contributes a little, together we can do something amazing.”
That’s the spirit that has powered Eat Well MCR since the beginning: ordinary people, united by food and kindness, creating something extraordinary.
When does Eat Well, Do Good take place?
Eat Well, Do Good 2025 runs throughout October across Greater Manchester. For information on how to take part, please click here
You can catch up with Eat Well MCR by clicking here
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