Brighton and Hove Albion deliver 5,100 free meals in one month

Albion in the Community has teamed up with The Caring Foundation – a charity set up by Richard Caring, who owns Bill’s Restaurant and Bar in North Road and The Ivy in the Lanes in Ship Street, and his wife Patricia - to provide ready-to-eat meals to some of the most vulnerable people the charity works with locally.

Staff at both restaurants have volunteered to work for The Caring Foundation throughout the Covid-19 crisis and have been producing thousands of meals which are delivered to the American Express Elite Football Performance Centre each Thursday morning from where Albion in the Community staff distribute them across Sussex.

This week saw the fourth consecutive Thursday on which meals have been delivered locally and more than 600 people have now received meals as part of the scheme, including some Albion season ticket holders who are currently having to shield as part of Covid-19 precautions, and a number of families living near to the club’s training ground in Lancing.

Meals are also delivered to families in Brighton and Hove, Eastbourne, Hailsham, Worthing, Bognor Regis, Burgess Hill, and other local towns and villages.

Many of the meals have been given to participants who would ordinarily be attending Albion in the Community’s football sessions for people with a disability, or to the families of young people who go to the charity’s free weekly football sessions held in areas of deprivation.

Matt Dorn, Albion in the Community’s chief executive officer, was delighted with how the initiative has gone. He said: “For us to be able to deliver 5,100 free meals in just four weeks is fantastic and I know from the feedback we have received just how much it has meant to the people receiving them.

“More than 600 people have benefited from these meals so far and for us to have the opportunity to distribute more than 1,000 meals locally each Thursday is amazing. Our thanks once again go to The Caring Foundation for its incredibly generous support.”

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