Actress and long-time campaigner for the UK’s Nepalese community, Joanna Lumley OBE, FRGS, has been helping a Nepalese restaurateur deliver his 100,000th free meal since the pandemic began.

Restaurant owner, Sujan Katuwal, has been donating dinners and meals to NHS workers, homeless shelters and community centres after being forced to shut last the very start of the coronavirus lockdown last March. In his drive to help others he was joined by the actress as he continued to take meals to the Royal Artillery barracks in Greenwich, in London.

“To help people who are terribly busy and won’t have time to prepare food is such a generous and open-hearted thing to do,” advocate and human rights activist Joanna said recently. “They’ve looked after care workers, the homeless community – and to crack through the 100,000-meal barrier is simply sensational. It should inspire us all and it’s so heart-warming to hear of something so special.”

The Panas Gurkha restaurant, in Lewisham, has spent tens of thousands of pounds on the Panas Helping Hands project and this year set up a crowdfunding page to keep the campaign going.

Sujan said: “Although it’s been hard for restaurants too it’s always so important to remember those who are less fortunate than you and I know Joanna shares this sense of community spirit too. To have her with us handing out food to the people who really need it right now is really special. Her help has been invaluable.”

In 2008, Lumley became the public face of a campaign to provide all Nepalese origin Gurkha veterans who served in the British Army before 1997 the right to settle in Britain. Those serving after 1997 had already been granted permission, but the UK Government has not extended the offer to all of the Gurkhas, who are natives of Nepal. On 20 November 2008, Lumley led a large all-party group including Gurkhas starting from Parliament Square to 10 Downing Street with a petition signed by 250,000 people. She supports the Gurkha Justice Campaign.

Inspired by the late Captain Sir Tom Moore, Sujan has been happily helping feed their local NHS workers in South London since early 2020 from his restaurant by delivering thousands of meals to NHS staff working at Lewisham Hospital and local hospices.