Four sites in London and two in Manchester have been chosen to reopen based on their proximity to and existing relationship with a local hospital or NHS building
The chicken chain, which is owned by South African investment firm Yellowwoods, has pledged to provide 1,500 free meals a day to NHS workers from across the six sites.
Meals will be dropped off at hospitals every evening between 6pm and 9pm, and each branch will obey both social distancing and strict health and safety measures.
Nando’s decision to reopen solely to supply meals to NHS staff is a marked difference to other high street chains such as KFC, Burger King, and Pret A Manger, which have all pledged to provide meals to NHS workers alongside reopening for customers.
While there is no word yet on whether Nando’s is considering reopening its kitchens to offer takeaway or delivery to customers, it has put a call out to any NHS teams that aren’t receiving meals for staff to get in touch with them.
A spokesperson said: “Hopefully if this goes well we will be able to open more restaurants to help more people.”
Spare food left at the end of the day is to be donated to charities through Nando’s anti-waste initiative.
Since 2013 Nando’s claims to have donated more than 1.5 million meals through the scheme.
