By Gary Jordan
What happens when a leading supermarket chain reaches out after seeing an award-winning charity continue its fine work, and wants to achieve the same level of community spirit that is being rolled out by another not-for-profit organisation?
The answer is in our name – Action.
You may have read elsewhere on our pages that Sport Local Action has the aim of helping sports clubs in communities that aspire of doing amazing things to help their local areas. If we look deeper into this there is a whole myriad of ways to assist in achieving those goals.
This is one of the main reasons why Dons Local Action Group was set up. Their story was one that was born out of the Covid pandemic, and as a pioneering food project it has now delivered: Food for over 6 million meals in four years. A truly astounding figure. Their work is not just the food received by grateful households, it has also helped furnish homes and provide recycled electronics to pupils via schools.
In this short space of time, DLAG has become a vital source of not just essential items, but a link to the community it serves. This was noticed by the store manager of a branch of Tesco that was outside of the normal boroughs that DLAG serve so well.
This is when Xavier Wiggins, chair of SLA and co-founder of DLAG, knew he could help, and went into action!
Feedo Needo are making great strides around the country as they endeavour to put a warm meal and fresh food in the mouths of the homeless and those less fortunate. They have a hub in the Borough of Hounslow, and so this made perfect sense to get them involved in a project with Tesco in Osterley.
Sport Local Action viewed this as a perfect opportunity to help both the Feedo Needo community and those that made the call asking for help at Tesco. So, on the 14 June, they helped set up a stall at the branch, and over the course of two days and eight hours collected from generous donations enough food for 45 people for a whole week. Safe to say this was a complete success for all involved. So much so this has been repeated since and will be part of an ongoing project as SLA work alongside Feedo Needo in the long term around the country.
"The amount of food generated by this excellent Sport Local Action, Dons Local Action and Feedo Needo collaboration on week one was breathtaking. With this project ongoing we are going to be able to help so many more people who desperately need us in our area" Project Manager at Feedo Needo Gracefilled Okeke expressed.
This is how Sport Local Action works. We see a need for help, and at this stage where so much is required, we are not afraid to help through our own resources. Feedo Needo has food hubs around the country, Ilford, Bradford, Birmingham, and Manchester. Due to this first collaboration with them, there is no doubt that Tesco will want to see SLA help roll out this scheme in those locations and beyond, such is the impact that this project has on communities.
“This project is extremely close to my heart. I believe passionately in this model to tackle the worst elements of food poverty and I believe sincerely that sports clubs and their charity partners can deliver transformative change through it. This is the beginning of the roll out and a project that can deliver massive community impact. Exactly the sort of thing SLA was built for.” Xavier said after the first weekend at the Osterley Tesco’s.
UK food poverty sits at 22%, and sadly this sort of scheme is desperately needed.
We at Sport Local Action would like to adopt the same principle with other causes and partners in various parts of the country. If there are sports clubs or charities and non-profits interested in exploring this for themselves SLA, with DLAG's support, are happy to help.
Feedo Needo have already seen how we can help, and we will not just leave them to it as our work can only go from strength to strength. We hope that others will join us on this journey, especially the untapped potential of sports clubs.