Our shop has reached out to vulnerable

One Leicester corner shop has been working tirelessly to help the local community.

Pratik Master, 34, owner of Wigston Fields News & Deli, cannot remember the last time he had a day off. In between helping customers at the shop he runs with his wife Bee, 32, he chats about what keeps him going.

“Adrenalin!” he says. “I think one of the things that people really do undervalue is the feeling of being needed. I tell you what, that keeps you going every single day.”

And since Pratik and Bee took over his dad Jayendra’s cornershop just before lockdown, the couple have worked tirelessly to help the local community – from giving away scarce supplies such as yeast and grow bags to the elderly, to donating to the food bank.

“If all it takes is for me to buy yeast by the kilo, bag it up and hand it out, it makes things better,” he says. “If someone hands over a little bit of yeast to their elderly neighbour, that’s only a good thing, isn’t it?”

Although he’s modest about his generosity, Pratik, who usually runs the city’s Lilu restaurant, has helped many vulnerable people by doing deliveries – and sourced everything from Bird’s Trifle Mix to posh pork pies for customers.

His day starts at 4am, and when the shop closes dad Jayendra comes in to tidy up.

“You’re not a shop, or even a business – to me, as a cornershop you are a service provider,” Pratik adds. “That service is all the more needed at a time like this.”