Football versus hunger

Fans’ foodbank support putting Tories to shame

There’s a pre-match buzz around Everton’s fanzone as supporters get in the mood for that night’s game at Goodison Park.

Hands are shaken and pints are passed between mates, replica shirts are bought for excited kids and burgers and chips are scoffed on the cold December night.

But something else is going on to the side of the large screen which causes few to turn their eyes away from the re-runs of past matches, despite it being a sight which shames the fifth-richest economy in the world.

There, fans hand over shopping bags containing UHT milk, longlife fruit juice, tins of meat and veg, packets of soup and pasta in the hope that it will help stave off hunger in working-class communities close to their beloved football club.

And few give the trestle tables weighed down with food a second glance because they’ve been there on every match day for three years, thanks to a group called Fans Supporting Foodbanks.

They deliver donations to North Liverpool Foodbank to replenish everdwindling stocks. Unlike the Tory MPS who turned up at supermarket drop-off points for a photo opportunity, these volunteers give up most of their day or evening whenever Everton or neighbours Liverpool play at home to help fend-off what they view as a humanitarian crisis.

And the fans are immensely proud of the job they’re doing.

Richard Robinson along with his wife Karen, from Huyton, have donated at every game for the past three seasons. “Collecting food at matches to feed people is an embarrassment to this nation but, thankfully, we have people like these who are doing it,” said the 61-year-old before last Monday’s match with Watford.

“There are people out there in genuine need and if you can afford to help you should.”

FSF is a partnership between Everton Supporters’ Trust and Liverpool fans’ group Spirit of Shankly.

It began in 2015, when Evertonian Dave Kelly and Liverpudlian Ian Byrne despaired at queues of hungry people at the city’s foodbanks.

They started putting wheelie-bins outside pubs on match days,

AID Ian Snodin, Ian Byrne and volunteer Robbie Daniels KICK OUT POVERTY Brian Reade with donations for foodbank

THE Daily Mirror has launched a campaign to give thousands of needy children a better Christmas.Readers are urged to back our End Hunger, Feed a Family Christmas appeal and all the money raised will go to the Trussell Trust, the country’s largest provider of foodbanks.How to help: Text MIRR18 £10 to 70070 to donate or MIRR18 £5 to 70070 today. £2 also works.Or call 0800 4725732. Or visit trusselltrust.org/mirror-donate. To volunteer, visit trusselltrust.org/ mirror-volunteer. Or send a cheque payable to The Trussell Trust to: Daily Mirror Christmas Appeal, 1 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AP.

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