As Hearts prepare to welcome St Mirren to Tynecastle on Saturday, the Jambos skipper, Craig Gordon was keen to highlight an important event taking place off the field.
The club’s official charity, Big Hearts, will hold their sixth annual food collection in aid of the Community One Stop Shop.
The matchday collection will enable the local Broomhouse foodbank to continue to provide essential supplies to hundreds of struggling families every month.
“It’s great for us to be able to get involved with that,” Gordon said. “Especially now, coming out the back of Covid and other things that have gone on.
“The area around the stadium is obviously not the most affluent area of Edinburgh, so for us to be able to help and for the players to know a little bit of the background around Hearts and around that area is great for us to be involved with and show that we support it,” he added.
“As a young player you’re trying to forge your career, but as you get older, you realise what goes on around a football club and how much they mean to the supporters and people of that area.
“Hearts are doing great things with the charity, Big Hearts, they’ve got the mental health support classes that they do in the changing rooms, the foodbank event too, so all these little things are good, and they all add to what the club can do to help the community.
“Ultimately, it’s all about trying to make this a bigger and better club that helps the community and that’s what football club’s almost have a duty to do now, so I’m very happy to be involved and try and push it as much as we can as players.”
Items urgently needed are: toiletries (soap, shampoo, shower gel), nappies, UHT milk, cereals, biscuits, tinned fruits and puddings.
From 12:30 on Saturday, supporters can drop their supplies off at the Wheatfield Stand turnstiles and at the Foundation Plaza.
Online donations can be made until 4 December through the fans’ forum Jambos Kickback
