Generous Hibs’ fans have supplied around 1,400 food packages to local families during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Volunteers and staff from the Hibernian Community Foundation get together every Friday at the stadium and put together food packages which are then distributed to household who are in need of extra help at this time.
In particular, they are keen to help families who are eligible for free school meals during the week but may face difficulties at the weekend.
Volunteer Daniel Shields told Radio Forth about the fantastic work that’s been going on at Easter Road over the past three-months.
He said: “The idea was to plug the game between families who would receive free school meals as part of their kids schooling and over a weekend where they might not have the food provision so a number of Hibs Community Foundation partners donate food and packages for the kids.
“We get together on a Friday afternoon at Easter Road and put together over 140 food packages delivered by a number of volunteers and staff of the HCF to the doors of families in need in the local area.
“What we have been able to do is bring together a number of volunteers that are maybe on furlough or not working at the moment and looking to help out put together some meaningful food packages to be delivered on a Saturday morning which means that families and parents are not worrying too much about having to get to the shops during the week or having to get to the shops on Saturdays to feed their families.
“The vast number of bags we see at Easter Road on a Friday hits home the number of families who are in need.
“We have a number of families to come to collect the packages from Easter Road whilst a lot of volunteers deliver to the doorstep.
“Families who maybe rely on the free school meals during the week but over the weekend they may struggle and I think a lot of families have been really grateful that we have been able to help them over those two days with food.
“Football fans and football in general can quite often be given a bad name but I think what we have seen over the last three months is that football clubs are a huge part of the community. Football fans are very loyal to the clubs through thick and thin. I think a lot of clubs have felt it’s only right they are there for them also in these hard times and that’s what we have seen over the last 10 weeks at Hibs and at Easter Road.
“What we’ve seen is football clubs across Scotland are coming together to react to the COVID crisis and not in response to anyone asking them to but just that football fans and football clubs are really keen make sure their communities are supplied for and helped when they need to.”
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
