Manchester United to deliver 60,000 free meals to feed NHS staff

Manchester United have announced plans to deliver 60,000 meals to NHS staff.

The first batch of prepared meals will be delivered free to four sites in Manchester on Friday as part of the club’s latest initiative to help combat coronavirus.

The joint venture between United, their foundation and catering supplier Bidfood has seen more than 80 permanent and casual club staff volunteer to prepare food in the kitchens at Old Trafford.

John Shiels, chief executive of the foundation said: “While many of our regular programmes have been disrupted by the pandemic, Manchester United Foundation is doing everything possible to continue helping the communities that we serve during this period of elevated need.

“Delivering meals to local hospitals is a wonderful initiative that unites the Old Trafford workforce in its support of the NHS; I thank everyone for their commitment to this inspiring scheme.”

United’s chief operating officer Collette Roche added: “It is an honour to provide this service as part of our support to the NHS. We are all indebted to them for what they are doing to protect and care for us all.”

In Pictures | Manchester United prepare meals for NHS staff - 30/04/20

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The initiative is collaboration with Mealforce, a coalition of organisations which have come together to deliver more than 500,000 meals in the last four weeks to frontline NHS workers across the UK.

United will cover staff and facility costs, with the rest underwritten by the foundation. Bidfood is conducting delivering across the city.

It is the latest admirable move by United in reaction to Covid-19.

They have already donated 30,000 items of food and drink to local charities as well as club medical and protective supplies to local hospitals.

A £50,000 was made to local food banks, with a fleet of vehicles made available to the NHS.

Staff have also been encouraged to volunteer.

Speaking to a fan forum, Ed Woodward revealed United are looking at even more ways to help.

“Many of our staff are coming up with these ideas, I think it’s been a great period of time to see how our staff are thinking about the power of Manchester United and what we can do influence some of our stakeholders,” he said.

“There are ongoing discussions with the NHS and local authorities about what more we can do, including volunteering use of facilities for various purposes.

“We’re going to continue supporting the local community for as long as the need continues, obviously there’s no visibility of the timing around that.

“We have significant additional initiatives in development which we will announce as soon as we can.

“Many people at the club are volunteering or working full-time on charitable and community response, for example the call centre has been repurposed for welfare calls to elderly and disabled season ticket holders.

“Other football clubs have also done good things and we welcome that – it’s great to see the football community stepping up.

“We’ve tried to lead with our response and we will continue to build on that.”

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