Everton in the Community has teamed up with Community Shop to deliver emergency food parcels

Everton In the Community and Community Shop Join Forces To Support Those In Need 

Everton’s Blue Family initiative has received a welcome boost from Community Shop, an award-winning social enterprise, which has committed to donating 100 emergency food parcels each week for Everton in the Community to distribute to those most in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

Community Shop is part of Company Shop Group, which is the UK’s largest redistributor of surplus food and products. Community Shop operates five social supermarket stores across England, including in Halton, providing members who receive welfare support and live locally with access to heavily discounted food and products. Members can also access life-changing personal development services which aim to build stronger individuals and more confident communities.

The team at Community Shop reached out to the Club’s official charity to pledge its support to its Blue Family campaign and will be donating 100 emergency food parcels a week for three months that will be given to elderly, vulnerable and socially isolated members of our community as well as Blue Mile residents. Community Shop has already donated 200 food parcels packed with essential items such as pasta, rice, cereal, tinned items, UHT milk and biscuits and the social enterprise is exploring additional ways to support local families living in poverty with donated food supplies targeted at children.

The creation of the parcels, packed with essential food and products, has also been supported by Community Shop’s long-standing partner and online grocery retailer, Ocado.

Everton in the Community CEO Richard Kenyon said: “We are extremely grateful to Community Shop for their support of our Blue Family campaign and the generous donation of food parcels. We have already started distributing them across our community and they have been welcomed by individuals and families who are really struggling with their finances and access to food supplies. The values and goals of Everton in the Community and the Community shop are very closely aligned and we look forward to what I’m sure will be a very positive long-term relationship.”

Natalie Brown, Head of Community Shop, said:

“We are incredibly proud to be working so closely with Everton in the Community on this initiative and by working together we are helping to provide a life-line to our local communities at a time when they need us most.

“We have been pleased to be able to rapidly scale up our operation and by leveraging our existing infrastructure and logistical capacity, have been able to provide immediate food access and support. We are hugely grateful for the hard-work that has gone in to making these food parcels by both our Community Shop team in Halton and Everton in the Community.

“We hope to be able to continue to provide support in the region, as we aim to make a difference by supporting even more families and changing even more lives”

Now in its third week, Everton Football Club and Everton in the Community’s Blue Family initiative is a coordinated outreach and engagement campaign to maintain contact with fans and participants and provide vital support and assistance to some of the most vulnerable, socially isolated and at-risk members of the community in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Club and charity staff have been reaching out to fans and members of the community in greatest need to deliver tailored and focused support, assistance and guidance as well as essential food parcels, financial assistance for prescription purchases and delivery, support with gas and/or electricity vouchers and mental health support and advice.

A referral service for access to Everton in the Community’s support provision has received more than 300 referrals in the first two weeks with over 1,300 check-in phone calls being made to fans, participants and elderly and/or vulnerable and/or at-risk individuals by staff, players and ambassadors.

For more information on Community Shop visit the website here.

To find out more about the Blue Family initiative visit www.evertonfc.com/bluefamily