Footballers rally round with food drive amid pandemic

With Herts Ad Sunday League football games suspended due to the pandemic, and players unable to play or train, members of Phoenix FC have been giving back to their local community.

With several players already involved in foodbanks through their work, they decided to organise a drive for donations over their WhatsApp and Instagram pages.

Chairman Sam McCord challenged them to fill his car with food, but they ended up filling five hatchback cards, delivering almost a tonne of food to St Albans Food Bank.

Sam said: "Unfortunately this type of drive is never enough, and given that there are over 50 teams, each of 15-plus players in the local Herts Advertiser Sunday League, hopefully more clubs will follow in our footsteps and organise food drives of their own.

"From speaking to the volunteers, we learned that some people in need can only use a food bank twice a year, which is often nowhere near enough."
Phoenix FC, which is the oldest running Sunday league football club in St Albans, is planning to arrange another food drive in the future.

They are also holding a charitable event next month to raise money for Bowel Research UK, in memory of local footballer Lee Bozier, who passed away from the cancer recently.

'500 Miles from Phoenix in Feb' will involve players running a combined 500 miles, with the promise that if they can achieve this by the middle of the month they will double the distance to 1,000 miles.

You can sponsor their efforts at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/500milesforpheonix