A Southend pub is now offering discount meals for the homeless which can be bought in advance by paying customers.

Staff at the Railway Hotel, in Clifftown Road, posted Facebook that they will now be offering two homemade meals at £2.50 that could be purchased and held for any homeless visitors.

Dave Dulake, 51, who is part owner of the pub, said it was inevitable for the pubs and customers to get involved in tackling the homeless situation.

He said: “It’s a community pub, a lot of our customers are worried about the homeless.

“Support groups use the pub for meetings, everybody here is really sympathetic towards people in need.

“We just put it on Facebook, offering two light meals. We only needed to cover the cost of ingredients so it works out £2.50 for each meal.

“It seemed a natural thing to do for us, everybody here is concerned for the homeless, especially this time of year.

“I have seen that other places locally do suspended coffees.”

Both meals are made by the pubs chef Deroll Glover. There is no profit made from the sale of the meals.

Mr Dulake added: “It’s not just a meal, we want them to feel they can come in and get out of the cold in a nice welcoming environment.

“We have limited the amount we will suspend because we’ve had so many people offering us money. The first week we were inundated with offers. So far we’ve had about 15 meals collected.”

The meals on offer are mac and cheese and soup with a bread roll. “Both meals are vegan.

Mr Dulake added: “Our chef has been working with us for five years, he’s the one behind our new vegan menu. He’s fantastic at what he does and this wouldn’t have been possible without him.

“Like I said, we’ve had lots of offers but it’s not a fundraiser, it’s a deposit to pay for the ingredients. We don’t want to stock pile a load of cash if no one is coming in to eat the meals, we need to get the word out.”