Manchester chef Mary-Ellen McTague has been recognised with the Special Award at the Cateys 2026, celebrating the remarkable impact of her charity, Eat Well MCR.
Launched during the Covid-19 pandemic, Eat Well MCR began as an emergency response. After lockdown ended, McTague kept going, building a city-wide network of chefs, hospitality businesses and volunteers that now delivers almost 2,500 nutritious meals every month to people across Greater Manchester.
For McTague, the charity has always been about far more than putting food on the table.
"The food we provide goes beyond satiating hunger; it’s about an emotional lift – that moment of relief or relaxation where you can switch off from whatever’s going on at that time in your life.
"That’s what the hospitality industry does for its customers, and it’s what we hope to do for people living with some very challenging circumstances."
Since launching, Eat Well MCR has served more than 164,000 meals to families living in temporary accommodation, women staying in refuges and households experiencing food poverty. Working alongside some of Manchester's best hospitality talent, the charity brings chefs and volunteers together to cook and deliver fresh, nutritious meals to those who need them most.
Its work stretches well beyond weekly meal deliveries. Over the years, Eat Well MCR has hosted free community events, helped independent traders serve 600 meals during the summer holidays, delivered 60 family picnic hampers through a local food bank, and provided more than 1,000 Christmas dinners. The charity has also given 24 looked-after young people the chance to learn new cooking skills at Food Sorcery in Didsbury.
The difference those meals make is reflected in the people receiving them.
Ruth Ibegbuna, founder of Rekindle supplementary school, said: "The beautifully crafted, tasty meals we receive each week from Eat Well MCR feed our young people and enable us to know that they’ve received at least one hot, tasty, nutritious meal that day. It has been an absolute lifeline and taken any stigma out of ‘free meals’."
A teacher at a Manchester primary school, where families collected meals to take home, added: "The families that have had the meals today are just made up. One of the mums had tears in her eyes – this will really help her and her girls."
Alongside leading Eat Well MCR, McTague has also opened Pip, the restaurant inside Manchester's Treehouse Hotel, making her latest recognition all the more fitting. The Cateys' Special Award celebrates outstanding contributions to hospitality, and few have had a bigger impact on Manchester's communities than Mary-Ellen McTague.
Find out more here