Liverpool restaurant staff serve up hope and help with Half Marathon team effort

Staff from one of Liverpool’s best-known independent restaurant groups are taking part in the Liverpool Half Marathon.

Fifteen team members from Maray Restaurant in Bold Street and the Albert Dock, together with sister venues The One O’Clock Gun and Buyers Club, will be hoping to complete the 13.1 miles (21.1 kilometres) later this month in aid of Asylum Link Merseyside.

Tom White, director and co-founder of QVO Hospitality which owns Maray and the other restaurants, says: “The target amount is £1,000 which will make a meaningful difference to the lives of those seeking asylum and refuge.

“Asylum Link is a great charity, just a small charity, and one very close to our hearts.”

Asylum Link Merseyside is based in St Anne’s presbytery next to St Anne’s Church in Overbury Street, Wavertree, and offers a safe space for asylum seekers and refugees to meet and relax, and find out more about the community they’ve found themselves in.

It provides a wide range of services like access to other agencies delivering refugee services on site: the Merseyside Refugee Support Network, MRSN, and the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit, GMIAU.

Asylum Link also offers English classes, wellbeing and health sessions and social activities, a clothes store, hot meals (usually for a nominal charge), and more, to promote its vision of building a society where asylum seekers are accepted, understood and welcomed, for the benefit of the whole community.

“People might remember how they came under threat last summer when we had all the unrest – the charity was targeted by far-right protestors – and the response from the local community, both online and in real life, was incredible, showing how hatred and bigotry doesn’t have a place within our city,” adds Tom.

“We had already been thinking of putting a team together for the Half Marathon and after this we thought straight away, this was who we’d do it for.”

The restaurant staff include people like Tom and fellow director James Bates, along with chefs, general managers, bar tenders, a restaurant porter, and front of house servers.

“I was surprised by the uptake when I put the idea on our internal communications channel, and it’s a real cross section of people.

“About a third of the 15 run already, but a large majority is people for whom this is the furthest they’ve ever run, so it’s a big, big commitment for them. They are really putting themselves out there and all because they are really behind the cause.  They feel passionately about the work Asylum Link does; it’s great.”

Tom continues: “It’s also a great bonding opportunity for everyone and what’s nice is that it’s team members from across the whole business, so it’s a really nice thing and good for the company culture.”

He smiles: “It’s always good to encourage everyone to do something healthy rather than just going to the pub! Everyone’s really excited.

“There’s a community-run running group called 2-Step Collective which does a social 5K from the Baltic Triangle and I’ve been going out every week with them.  It’s hard for us to all train together and pin everybody down because we all have different shifts, but other team members have joined in when they can and we do plan a big group run together before the actual day of the Half Marathon itself on Sunday, March 23.”

The runners have been sponsored by QVO’s wine merchants Hallgarten, who have had t-shirts made with both the restaurants and Asylum Link’s names: “So we are raising awareness as well as money.

“And we are planning a post-Half Marathon event at The One O’Clock Gun where we’ll have buckets to boost the donations too.

“As a business owner, to see so many people involved and engaged is really encouraging.”

You can help Tom and his team mates from Maray & QVO Hospitality support Asylum Link Merseyside here.

Read more features from The Guide Liverpool here.