Foodbank for Fulham: Support Leicester’s homeless with a donation this Saturday
This Saturday sees the fifth annual edition of the food bank organised by Union FS to support Leicester charity The Bridge - Homelessness to Hope.
The origins of the food bank initiative can be traced back to a simple yet impactful idea: football fans have the collective power to create positive change. Union FS long ago recognised their ability to rally support for charitable causes in the county. The Bridge’s focus on supporting the homeless in Leicester made it a natural partner.
“We’ve always had a strong sense of civic pride,” says Chris from Union FS. “It’s about helping everyone in Leicester. We’re always looking for ideas of how to do that and a food bank seemed like a practical way to support some of the city’s most vulnerable residents.”
“The fanbase has really embraced it, and the club has come around to supporting it as well.”
Union FS organises the food bank during the winter months to align with a Leicester home game. This Saturday, volunteers will collect donations at a designated location outside the SK1 area of the stadium - donations can include non-perishable food items, cash contributions, and, for the first time this year, winter clothing such as hats, scarves, gloves and coats.
This year, the collection will take place from 1:45pm to 2:45pm, with volunteers working quickly to load donations into a van before kickoff. After the game, a smaller team delivers the contributions to The Bridge.
Beyond the logistical support and donations, the project has also created opportunities for volunteers to witness the impact of fans’ contributions.
“We organised a collection of scarves for The Bridge recently and I was one of the three members of the group who went to deliver them,” says Chris. “They were very appreciative of that. And it was quite nice to see the work that they do first hand, and chat to some of their service users.”
During the summer months, Union FS also organises a charity football tournament for LOROS, the Leicestershire hospice care organisation.
It’s clear both from speaking to members of Union FS and when reading the communications the group send out that their original aim of improving the atmosphere at home games quickly expanded into something much more rounded. There’s a determination to try to retain a strong link to the city and county at a time when football clubs are focused on global marketing and growth.
It’s fair to say the club has often needed a nudge towards closer engagement with supporters and the city as a whole. But for Union FS, it doesn’t seem to be purely about pushing one agenda.
“We would like to see the football club working a little bit more with fans,” says Chris. “Not just official fan groups but doing things with and for all fans, to openly show a bit more respect for them. The pricing for the QPR game last weekend, for instance, was really positive.”
There are many Leicester fans for whom the work of Union FS is an enormous source of pride. The impact of their efforts relies on people getting involved and bringing whatever they can. Voices. Ideas. Use of a storage facility large enough to house a full-stand tifo.
We all have it in us to contribute something to help make Leicester games feel more like a positive experience whatever the result. And every contribution this Saturday, large or small, helps to support efforts to provide for Leicester’s most vulnerable people.
David Fawcett, Chief Executive at The Bridge Homelessness to Hope said: “This collection is a chance for Leicester City supporters and people in the community to donate clothes, food and other essentials to our Leicester-based charity to help people in the city who are homeless and vulnerably-housed.
“Many thanks again from everyone at The Bridge Homelessness to Hope to Union FS for their ongoing support in organising these donations. We hope that it will be an amazing success and also thanks in advance to the brilliant Leicester City fans who will be contributing.”
What most epitomises the work Union FS do is that all of these displays, events, charity tournaments and more are done by normal fans, like me and you.
Whether that be sacrificing hours in their weekend schedules to create handmade displays or bringing their ideas to life in the stands with the help of everybody else in the stadium, they embody that togetherness and spirit which has got Leicester through good times and bad times in the past, present and no doubt the future.
It’s something that is aided by the generous donations of the supporters. Every penny the group receives is put back into funding their displays and their merchandise that can often be seen dotted around the King Power Stadium and not just in the singing section of SK1.
