ONE of Newport’s most historic venues has announced it will be helping pensioners through this winter’s cost of living crisis by offering them free lunches.

The Queen’s Hotel on Bridge Street will work to ensure the city’s pensioners can enjoy a hot meal throughout November, December and January as food and energy costs soar.

The initiative comes as the venue launches its latest food offering – an elevated all-you-can-eat buffet open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The hot buffet will use locally sourced ingredients to create healthy dishes from scratch featuring a range of cuisines.

Venue owners Dan O’Connell and Jennifer Drury said: “At the same time as launching the Queen’s Buffet, we wanted to make sure we took the opportunity to give something back to the community.

“We know many older people in the city are going to find the next few months a struggle financially, and we personally deplore the idea that pensioners might be making the choice between eating and heating.

“Being able to offer free lunches to pensioners will hopefully mean some of the most vulnerable people in our community don’t have to make that choice.”

To take advantage of the offer, all over-65s have to do is arrive at the Queen’s between midday and 4pm between Monday and Saturday, and bring proof of age with them.

They will then be able to enjoy the all-you-can-eat buffet lunch free of charge.

The Queen’s Buffet is available in three sittings Monday-Saturday, with a lunch carvery on Sundays:

  • Breakfast 7am-11am;
  • Lunch: midday-4pm;
  • Dinner: 6pm-10pm.

No booking is required with the venue able to cater for more than 200 covers.

The all-you-can-eat buffet is priced at £6.50 per person for breakfast, £7.99 for lunch and £9.99 for dinner and Sunday lunch carvery.

Children eat half price across all buffets.

Mr O'Connell said: “All-you-can-eat buffets are not a new concept, but we believe we’re the only place offering this throughout the day across the breakfast, lunch and dinner services.

"We hope that the wider community will support the concept by visiting, which will in turn help us support our elderly residents.”