Local groups from across London and Berkshire received recognition for their efforts to make a difference to their communities at the 5th Atul Pathak Community Awards, that were held at the House of Commons on Wednesday evening 23rd May.
Recipients included the Friern Barnet Community Library, Maidenhead based Braywick Charitable Trust, the Bracknell Firefighters Charity and the Halo Children’s Foundation based in Hayes. Other recipients were the Ealing Street Pastors, the Tree House Café at the Windsor Baptist Church as well as the Cricklewood and East Finchley Festivals in June.
A special award was presented to the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank which seeks to influence government thinking and policy, to help fund research. This awards were meant to look at how more can be done to support schools to provide opportunities to disadvantaged pupils to develop the all-important life skills as a way to level the playing field in life after education.
The evening was hosted by Rt Hon Theresa Villiers, the Conservative MP for Chipping Barnet and the opening speech was given by Richard Harrington, the Conservative MP for Watford and a Minister at the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. After a speech from Atul Pathak OBE which spoke about the importance to him of giving something back to the communities in which his restaurants are based, Virendra Sharma, the Labour MP for Ealing Southall, gave the vote of thanks to Pathak for his generosity. Atul Pathak, the Managing Director of the Appt Corporation, is the UK’s leading McDonald’s franchisee, serves over 24 million customers at its 31 restaurants located in north, west and central London as well as across Berkshire.
In total there were nine awards, and each recipient was presented with a certificate to recognise and thank them for the fantastic work they do in their communities and also a donation for them to put towards a particular project or objective. The awards also included a ‘partnership pledge’ to give them access to Appt Corporation’s management team who can offer them additional, tailored support ranging from advice in marketing, or PR, or finance as well the use of their local McDonald’s over the next twelve months.
Speaking after the awards, Pathak said: “At Appt Corporation, we believe that a business has to be based in its community because it very much relies on that same community. We really want to encourage people to get involved and support their local community, which is why it is important to inspire the local community to develop and flourish and champion local causes. The awards are a small way of recognising and thanking those charities who contribute so much to our local communities.”
