West Ham United Joint-Chairman David Sullivan has provided the Newham Foodbank with the funds to purchase a new delivery van.
The smart new van will enable the Newham Foodbank, working in partnership with the Irons Supporting Foodbanks fan group, to collect and deliver food and clothing to homeless centres across the Borough.
Mr Sullivan’s donation comes after he made a personal £3,500 donation to cover the donations that Irons Supporting Foodbanks would have collected at the final five home games of the 2019/20 season, which were played without fans present due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and £1,500 to the Merseyside PPE Hub which provided 1,300 protective visors to east London and Essex hospitals and care homes.
When the Joint-Chairman heard the Newham Foodbank needed a new delivery van to collect donations and deliver them to the needy in one of England’s most deprived communities, he made a further £18,000 personal donation. First-team players Mark Noble and Declan Rice have also made personal donations to Newham Foodbank.
The van has been covered in graphics by West Yorkshire-based Ad Bell Sign Systems, with the Newham Foodbank and Irons Supporting Foodbanks logos and contact details for both groups.
Having their own vehicle is a game changer for the Newham Foodbank
John Ratomski
Since hitting the road, the new van has collected and delivered ten boxes of new t-shirts and hoodies to Amy’s Space and Lola’s Place homeless centres in Newham, while also distributing excess stocks of sugar, rice pudding and mushy peas to the North West Foodbank Network.
Foodbank representatives will also use the van to collect monthly donations of food from Merseyside and surplus new clothes from Cheshire.
John Ratomski from Irons Supporting Foodbanks said: “Having their own vehicle is a game changer for the Foodbank. Without their own transport they were severely restricted in moving food around their various food supply centres in Newham.
“Having their own van also now allows them to set up and collect from more supermarkets in Newham.”
Adeola Osunbade, trustee at Newham Foodbank, added: “Words cannot express our gratitude.
“The Sullivan family took time out to visit one of our centres, listened, observed and came back to meet our long-time need for a van to enable us to reach more and serve more of our community members in need of food parcels, especially during this period.”
