A WESTON fish and chip shop is launching a Pay It Forward scheme to help those struggling this year.

The Strange Catch, located on West Street, has said that it will begin the scheme from January 9.

A spokesperson from the business said: "As we enter our 4th year I look back at 2023 with no real joy. Watching the cost of potatoes nearly double in price over 18 months with quality not at their best, the cost of living for everybody sky-rocketing, the cost of energy going through the roof and with more and more people having to use food banks you can kind of see why.

"As a family, we've been lucky in that we have not had to look upon the kindness of food banks to help feed the kids, but not everybody is in the same situation as ourselves. That's why this year I would really like to do something for those in real need.

"As of Tuesday, January 9 we will be starting a new initiative called The Pay it Forward scheme.. I'd like to claim that this is all my idea but it is an idea that has been going on in America and many shops in the UK for a while now.

"We will be setting up a notice board within the shop that will allow people to pin prepaid meals on to. Those people that have fallen upon hard times or are struggling to put food on the table for their families will be able to come in to the shop and take one of the meals down, hand to my staff and redeem their meal.

"This is a scheme that is run on trust and the generosity of others that do not find themselves going through quite the same hardships as others.

"As a business we will start the ball rolling by placing 10 lite-bite meals on to the board but really hope that we are able to operate this scheme successfully through the generosity of others.

"As an incentive for people to place meals on the board every contribution to the scheme will be placed into a hat and a prize draw will be done at the end of every month, the winner will win complimentary cod, chips and mushy peas for two people."