Fans Supporting Foodbanks receive bumper haul from final festive fixtures at Goodison Park

As Everton prepare to bid farewell to Goodison Park the long goodbye has just passed another milestone, the last set of festive fixtures at the historic football stadium.

But it isn’t just the fans and team who were marking the final Christmas at the ground in Walton, it also saw the final festive foodbank collection in the shadow of the grand old lady.

Fans Supporting Foodbanks is a joint initiative between supporters of Liverpool and Everton.

It started in 2015, with wheelie bins outside pubs near Goodison and Anfield on match days.

It has grown to feed 2,500 people a week across Merseyside.

And while the scale of the crisis the team are trying to fight is daunting and depressing the mood at the purple van on the corner of Goodison Road is in stark contrast.

Fans arriving with their donations are greeted by smiling faces, friendly chat and banter.

Yesterday before Everton’s fixture with Nottingham Forest you would have spotted Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham in conversation with volunteers.

Keith Mullin, guitarist with Liverpool band The Farm, is a regular contributor and supporter and retired Everton player and manager Colin Harvey is Honorary Life President of the organisation, with his family delivering his contribution to the van at every home game.

But high-profile politicians, musicians and football legends aren’t the stars of this show, the real heroes are the volunteers who’ve been in place for three hours before kick-off and will ensure the food is packed away afterwards delivered safely to their distribution points.

And the hard work doesn’t end there. From Monday to Friday Fans Supporting Foodbanks runs food pantries across Merseyside, staffed by an army of volunteers.

These market style facilities see people who live within local postcodes signing up and selecting a bag of food items for £3.50. There are tins, dried goods, fresh meat, vegetables and fruit to choose from, as well as toiletries.

Dave Kelly co-founded the organisation with fellow Evertonian Robert Daniels and Liverpool fan and now West Derby MP Ian Byrne.

He says their ultimate aim is for the organisation to disband, to no longer be needed. Until that point, they will continue their work.

The Christmas collections at Everton and Liverpool produced a bumper haul.

Dave said:

“The collection before Everton’s match with Chelsea was our biggest non Derby collection and we have counted 20 trays of food following the Forest match.

“What is most noticeable now is the coordinated efforts of supporters groups who travel to the match together from outside Liverpool.

“They are doing collections on the coaches and bringing them to the van. We have seen this at Anfield for a few years now but we are starting to see it at Everton now too and it is just amazing.”

The concept has spread across the UK and there are now foodbank collections at football grounds in cities across England and Scotland.

The concept is also drifting across the Atlantic.

Dave said:

“Chicago Evertonians have started doing collections in the pub where they watch the match and there are now coalitions with American Liverpool fans, Man City fans and even Real Madrid fans. So we are not only in every major town and city here, but also now in America. It is quite something.”

Dave recently visited a school for children with special educational needs and disabilities and was asked to speak in assembly about the work of Fans Supporting Foodbanks.

He said: “Not only had they brought in food but they had been making butties every week and holding a sale of them and using the money they raised to buy food. The pride they had in what they had achieved was humbling.”

The foodbank collections at Anfield and Goodison are not just about donations, they have become a community of people, making friends and learning about food insecurity and the work of people trying to eradicate it.

Dave added:

“They are a magnet for good people who want to do good things.”

And those good things will continue after Everton leave Goodison Park with the group already making plans for their collections at the new stadium. 

For now the food is being moved to where it is needed and the volunteers move on to the next match.

You can follow Fans Supporting Foodbanks on X @SFoodbanks and learn how to donate or how to become a pantry member.

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