Fans Supporting Foodbanks had their collection stolen (Image: Fans Supporting Foodbanks/ X)
A Liverpool foodbank collection bucket was stolen at Anfield ahead of the Reds’ Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain. The distressing news has left supporters of the charity outraged, with many branding the act as ‘deplorable’.
Fans Supporting Foodbanks is a unique partnership between supporters’ clubs from Liverpool and Everton, the Spirit Of Shankly and The Blue Union, to help tackle food insecurity, by supporting local foodbanks and pantries. The initiative holds collections at both Anfield and Hill Dickinson Stadium.
The collections provide supplies for food pantries across Liverpool at eight locations. Local people can sign up, pay a small weekly fee, and receive a supply of food and other essentials, with up to 2,500 people fed each week by the pantries.
After 10 years of collecting on Merseyside, the charity took to social media to reveal that their collection this evening had been stolen.
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Fans Supporting Foodbanks said on X: “After over 10 years of foodbank collections at Anfield, Goodison Park and the HDS some chancer took the opportunity to steal our collection bucket this evening. Shame on you, I hope your need is greater than the people we feed and the CCTV images are as clear as can be.”
On social media, one person said: “Deplorable to steal from charity. Lower than low.”
Another added: “There is a reason why they have but it doesn’t outweigh the reasons why they shouldn’t have. Hopefully they get caught and are able to explain their actions fully. This isn’t ok.”
A third wrote: “We need to get a donation going for this. Stealing from honest vulnerable people.”
An X user said: “Absolute disgrace whoever done this,” while fan-channel Redmen TV added: “Disgusting this.”
Fans donate food to a foodbank outside of Anfield (Image: Fans Supporting Foodbanks/ X)
The initiative was established in 2015 and has helped to build a network of supporter-led food banks throughout the nation. Last year, the organisation, founded by Everton supporters Dave Kelly and Robbie Daniels, alongside Liverpool fan and current West Derby MP Ian Byrne, officially became a registered charity.
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Elected Chair, Dave Kelly, said: “When Robbie, Ian and I first stood outside the Winslow pub opposite Goodison Park with a wheelie bin to collect food, we never thought that ten years later we’d still be doing what we do.
“Although we are now a registered charity, with a board of trustees and on a formal footing, we remain a grassroots organisation embedded in our football fan communities, trying to do our bit to help our neighbours. You never know who might need our help but while they do, we will be there.”
Ian Byrne said: “When we set up FSF in 2015, it was both a practical sticking plaster to address the hunger we saw in our communities, and a recognition of the need for a political solution.
“The catastrophe of hunger and poverty in our communities is the direct result of political choices made by successive governments. If a government cannot ensure that everyone has enough not to eat but to thrive, then it is a government that is fundamentally failing.”