Sunderland fans... The Soup Kitchen & Foodbanks need your donations at the SoL on Saturday!

This Saturday afternoon, ahead of the Sunderland AFC men’s game against Bolton Wanderers at the Stadium of Light, the club, the Foundation of Light, and the Red & White Army, are coming together to run a foodbank collection.

Donations will be gratefully accepted at the Fanzone in the Beacon of Light between 12pm and kick off at 3pm.

The collection point will receive donations that will go to the Sunderland and Durham Foodbanks and Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen. Whatever you can spare will be gratefully received, but the items that the foodbanks and the soup kitchen are particularly looking for are as follows:

• UHT milk
• Fruit juice
• Sponge puddings
• Biscuits
• Jam
• Tinned pies
• Tuna
• Suet puddings
• Canned chili
• Tinned meats
• Tinned mixed veg

With the nights drawing in, furlough ending, cuts to vital benefits for families looming, and inflation rising for both food and energy, more and more people are struggling to make ends meet.

Even though in a wealthy country like the UK we shouldn’t need to, the wonderful community around Sunderland AFC has always pulled together to help those who are most vulnerable and most in need in our city and our region.

The club’s website highlighted the story of Australia-based supporter Stuart Hudson made the incredible gesture of donating £5,000 to the Soup Kitchen earlier in the year, a donation that was matched by the club. Andrea Bell, founder of the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen, told the club’s website:

We want to thank our amazing donor and Sunderland AFC for supporting our volunteers and visitors at the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen. They have helped to enable life experiences unavailable to many and are continuing to bring people together within our city.

We are very excited to partner with the club and its supporters’ groups, as we work together to end hunger poverty within our community.

Chair of the Red & White Army, Andrew Hird, who has coordinated the collection point on Saturday, added:

Following the return of fans to the Stadium of Light, Red and White Army are pleased to continue our partnership with Sunderland & Durham Foodbank and now the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen in providing a donation point for these two very valuable organisations.

We’ve seen the fantastic generosity of our supporters in assisting the foodbank pre-covid, as well as during the pandemic with the drive through collection before Christmas.

We’re hoping fans can donate what they can to support the organisations in what will undoubtedly be an extremely challenging period for many within our community.

The wonderful volunteers at the Foodbanks and our partners the Sunderland Community Soup Kitchen will keep on feeding and clothing people in need. Here at Roker Report, alongside our friends in the SAFC fan groups, we’ll keep promoting their amazing work as much as we can, and, together, we will continue to show that the real value of football is its ability to bring people together to support one another.

Solidary, Keep the Faith, and Ha’way the Lads and Lasses!