Manchester Evening News

Fans unite to hand out vital PPE

- By SIMON BAJKOWSKI

A CITY fan group has helped take delivery of 2,000 protective visors made by Merseyside PPE Hub volunteers to contribute vital equipment to key workers.

Fans Supporting Foodbanks, a joint initiative by Liverpool and Everton fans to tackle food poverty, have added to their skills during the pandemic by producing PPE. The group has this weekend delivered thousands of visors to Newcastle, Huddersfie­ld, Leeds, Manchester and London.

On hand at the Etihad to pick up the visors were MCFC Fans Foodbank Support and Manchester United fan and

GMB Union member Neil Smith, who will work together to distribute across the region. The majority will go into the social care system, with donations also to food banks and blood donation centres.

“We’ve been working closely with the Liverpool branch of Fans Supporting Foodbanks since we started collecting at City games. It’s a privilege to know them and the solidarity they’ve shown to Manchester is humbling,” said Alex Timperley from the MCFC Fans Foodbank Support.

“These masks will be a big help at the sharp end of the Covid-19 crisis in our city and we won’t forget who helped us out in these tough times.”

A statement from Smith read: “Our members and other key frontline staff are scandalous­ly being left short of PPE when working to protect our communitie­s and the incredible work Fans Supporting Foodbanks are doing along with other major partners to provide protection in these desperate times is a credit to all of them and underlines the solidarity we have come to expect from such organisati­ons looking after the interests of our members, key workers and the workingcla­ss communitie­s across the region.”

MCFC Fans Foodbank Support teamed up with MUFC Fans’ Foodbanks in March to write an open letter calling on the clubs to help out the local community in the crisis.

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