The Pub Aid Community Pub Hero Awards are back for another year

The Community Pub Hero Awards reward the pubs who go the extra mile to support their local communities and raise money for charity.

Organised by Pub Aid and supported by the All-Party Parliamentary Beer Group, Matthew Clark are once again sponsoring these fantastic awards.  

This year, Pub Aid are expanding the competition, creating separate awards for Community Support Pub Hero, Charity Fundraising Pub Hero and a new Community Regular Hero award for a customer or group of regulars who help with a pub’s good works. The entry deadline is 31st October – more details around entry criteria for each category can be found via the Pub Aid website. Community Pub Hero Awards | PubAid 

Last year’s winners  

The 2021 competition was the first time that two joint winners were announced. Judges decided to make two top awards last year in recognition of the very different community support offered by the two pubs. 

The Horse & Jockey in Melling, Merseyside 

Licensees, Adam & Suzanne Franklin, at The Horse & Jockey cooked and delivered a total of 15,000 free hot meals to vulnerable and shielding local residents. They also sent out 1,000 care packages, shopped for the community and collected and dropped off medication. 

They also ran a ‘listening ear’ service, calling everyone on their hot meal service to check on them and offer a chat. In all of this, they were helped by a band of 50 volunteers, who came forward within hours of an appeal from Suzanne. After the end of the first lockdown, the pub created a permanent community kitchen to continue helping those in need. 

The Portsmouth Arms, Basingstoke  

Rich Curtis, general manager at The Portsmouth Arms, a Hall & Woodhouse pub in Hatch Warren, Basingstoke, launched a virtual pub quiz on Facebook Live at the end of March 2020, as a way of bringing a pub experience to locked down customers in their homes. 

Within a few weeks, the quizzes had raised more than £9,000 for charity and had more than 100, 000 views, not just from the UK but globally. Every week, Rich came up with a new theme for the quiz to keep it fresh and had a few star guests. 

In May 2020, Rich broke the Guinness World Record for the world’s longest quiz master session, achieving a 34-hour and 11-minute quiz which raised more than £21,000 for The Pink Place Cancer Charity in Basingstoke. The Portsmouth Arms started record-beating pub quiz has raised more than £66,000 for charities. 

Entering the awards  

Entering your pub into the Pub Aid awards is easy and free of charge. The criteria for each award can be found by visiting the Pub Aid website where the entry form can also be found. Please only enter one category. However, nominations for a Community Regular Hero can be additional to other entries. Deadline to enter is 31st October.  

After the closing date, Pub Aid will review all entries and select finalists in each category. They will be invited, with their local MP, to a reception in London early next year where the winners will be announced.