Whitchurch’s award-winning Victoria Fish Bar is again preparing to open its doors on Boxing Day to provide free meals to the homeless, elderly and vulnerable. However, there’s more to this endeavour than first appears.
This chip shop is well-known and popular. The moment the shop doors open, eager customers are already lined up. The space pulses with the sounds of chopping ingredients and sizzling fryers, adding to the comforting, savoury aroma that fills the air and irresistibly tempts you to dive into their menu.
This family-owned chip shop in Whitchurch, Cardiff, has steadily built a remarkable business that relishes the chance to give back to the community and those in need. The owner, Muhammad Nazakat explained:
“I can’t do anything without community. Community is my heart and means everything to me. My community look after me, they love me, and I love them back. I am proud of my kids, family, sons, and my staff – they are helping their community.”
In 2019, the shop took its first powerful step by offering free food to those experiencing homelessness on Christmas Day. Boxes of freshly cooked, delicious meals are set to be prepared. They include different options which include fish and chips or pie and chips with curry sauce and a drink. Yet, Muhammad and his team didn’t want to stop there.
The next year, he offered free food not just to the homeless, but to all those working on Christmas Day, such as the police, fire brigade, bus drivers, hospital workers and more. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, you can come and get some free food,” he said.
Muhammad makes it clear that the team at Victoria Fish Bar aren’t doing this for any other reason than to give back: “We do this from our hearts, and we want to do it.” In 2023, he even gifted some customers with cash from his pocket as a Christmas gift, giving away £10 each to 100 people on Boxing Day.
However, The Victoria Fish Bar does not just limit this generosity to one day a year; the shop also gives around 8-10 large meals a week to The Huggard, Wales’s leading centre for people who are homeless and sleeping rough.
The owner is very aware of Cardiff’s increasing numbers of people sleeping rough on our streets and the desperate need to help them: “There are more homeless people today. You go around the corner and four to five homeless people are sleeping there.”
In addition, going far beyond serving exceptional food, this remarkable chippy has involved the whole community. A band of volunteers has joined in, bringing gifts, clothing (both new and slightly used), socks, shoes, toothbrushes, toothpaste, women’s hygiene products, chocolates, biscuits—anything you can imagine! All these donations are delivered by these volunteers to homeless shelters across Cardiff on the very same day. They deliver to the city centre, City Road, Albany Road, Ely, Rumney, and St. Mellons. They even travel as far as Caerphilly, Pontypridd and Newport. The staff and volunteers from the community make these deliveries happen.
In the first year of their charitable venture, Victoria Fish Bar provided over 400 meals to those in need. The following year, that number rose to over 700 meals, then 800 the next, and last year, more than 900 meals were served. Their goal is to keep increasing this number every year. This keeps the shop exceptionally busy, as they must condense a typical twelve-hour workday into just six hours.
Like last year, the shop will open on Boxing Day instead of Christmas Day. This decision comes after other stores followed their lead by opening on Christmas, prompting Muhammad Nazakat to choose Boxing Day as an opportunity to spread the spirit of giving a little further.
