Accrington Stanley Football Club, Amazing Accrington and the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters’ Trust (OASST), are launching their annual appeal for food supplies, in aid of local charity Maundy Relief.
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the collection is unable to take place at the Wham Stadium this year, and instead will be located in the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters’ Trust shop, in Accrington Market Hall.
This time the collection will run for three days – Thursday 3rd December (9-4), Friday 4th (9-4) and Saturday 5th (9-2). This will allow plenty of time for drop-offs, enabling social distancing.
Studio, Hyndburn’s largest employer, has kindly donated 250 selection boxes directly to Maundy, and 250 to this appeal.
Fans, families and members of the community are asked to bring along whatever food items they can spare to the Official Accrington Stanley Supporters’ Trust shop, and younger fans will then be rewarded with a free selection box in return, while stocks last. They’d love to see you in your shirts and scarves!
Christmas parcels will be distributed to families in need, so items such as tinned meat, biscuits, crackers, boxed chocolates, Christmas cake or mince pies would be welcomed, as well as long-life store cupboard items such as soups, pasta sauce, coffee or UHT milk.
Lucy Hardwick, CEO of Maundy Relief, said: “Christmas is a really difficult time for a lot of families, and particularly during this pandemic. We want to bring some joy to people who are struggling and enable them to have a treat at Christmas and not just get by. We work with families on a one-to-one basis to establish how best to help them and the support year on year at this time is essential.”
Maundy Relief are known in the Hyndburn community for being a frontline response team who immediately help anyone in need and are one of the leads on the Hyndburn Hub. Their services are open to all and include help with physical, mental and emotional health.
The collected food items will be transported to Maundy Relief’s drop-in centre, which is on Abbey Street, Accrington. The items will be used for food parcels that are available to all those in need this Christmas throughout the local area.
Actress Julie Hesmondhalgh, Patron of Maundy Relief, said “I know we all have big hearts in Accy, and we’ll all pull together to help our community. Huge thanks to Studio too, for their donations and support!”
Stanley manager John Coleman said: “We have run this event successfully for several years now and I’m proud of how the fans and players come together to support our community. If you’ve anything to spare, please come down and give what you can.”
Peter Leatham, Chair of OASST added: “It’s wonderful to see the amount of support we get for this event. The Market Hall is fully open, just pop something extra in your shopping to pass on. We are part of the #AmazingAccrington initiative which is all about giving our community the boost it deserves. We are incredibly proud to be a part of this and we hope you can give just a little to help those in need.”
For more information about Maundy Relief, please visit www.maundyrelief.co.uk.
