British-Indian Restaurant Supports Torbay Homeless Service With “Curry & Chaat” Campaign

Torquay restaurant Bombay Express is supporting Mental Health Awareness Week’s campaign “Curry & Chaat”.

This year the topic is stress and how to look after your mental health; encouraging the public to get together with friends, family or colleagues for a curry and time to talk.

Bombay Express restaurant on Belgrave Road is collecting donations for the Mental Health Foundation, as well as serving their popular set menu for residents of The Leonard Stock Centre.

The centre is a 24hr supported hostel service which offers help to single homeless people and rough sleepers in Torbay; assisting moves into more permanent accommodation, running activities to help develop lifeCurry and Chaat 2 skills and self-esteem, promoting healthy living and creating opportunities for people to talk about their challenges. The service also runs rough sleeper outreach and drop-in sessions at the hostel for people living on the street.

Restaurant owner Rehan Uddin praised the “incredible and inspiring” team at the centre and was quick to volunteer when Mental Health Practitioner Emily Robertson sent out requests to local businesses asking for any donations they would be kind enough to offer – “this is a such a treat; we have all been really looking forward to the event! It is incredibly important for our residents to feel valued within the community, so to share this generosity and kindness is wonderful”.

Mr Uddin, the founder of Asian Restaurant Owner’s Network (ARON) is passionate about breaking stigmas, “we’d like to thank the residents and staff for such a warm welcome and encourage more local businesses to provide positive opportunities and experiences for this grateful community. This is the first time a British-Indian restaurant has publicly raised awareness about mental health – in the Asian community nobody really talks about it; today highlights a positive move in Asian culture to open-up, share and support each other”.

Curry and Chaat

Anyone can join in with the Curry & Chaat campaign! For more information, visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk

If you would like to support the Leonard Stock Centre contact danny.crowley@shekinah.co.uk

If you need to talk to someone about your mental health or about any issues or concern, the Samaritans offer emotional support in full confidence, 24 hours a day – call free on 116123 or email jo@samaritans.org.uk