Bromborough Rake FC delivering food to families in need

Players from Bromborough Rake FC, who play in the Houlihan's Birkenhead Sunday League Second Division, were shocked when photos started to emerge earlier this week of inadequate food parcels - that were supposed to be worth £30 in value to last a week - but appeared to be a fraction of that offering at best.

After a WhatsApp group discussion, the team quickly raised £700 between them and posted their plan on Facebook, creating an immediate response from social media users, who shared the post hundreds of times.

Club player Danny Rooney said: "I was on Facebook and I saw a girl who I know from years ago. I always thought she was sound and wasn't struggling or anything but I saw she had a post saying she'd had a food parcel delivered. It was miniscule. It had half a pepper in it.

Players from Bromborough Rake FC outside Aldi after filling their trollies to make more food packages for local families

"We put it in our football team group chat and we were all saying how disgraceful it was. I just thought to myself, I can't sit here eating well when there's people struggling like that.

"I asked the group if anyone wanted to chuck in and we'll get something going. We put a post on Facebook and got something like 570-odd shares, which we didn't expect. All the lads put in and we raised £700 in the day.

"I had people messaging me and asking if they can help and put in. We didn't know what to do, so one of the lads, Adam (Jones), made a GoFundMe page yesterday and it made £330 just in the remainder of the day."

The team has not just raised £1,000 for the fund in little over a day, but they are purchasing and delivering the food parcels themselves, fitting in the operation around their work and other commitments.

The team make sure that they can bring in a weekly food package as close to £30 as they can

Danny said: "We didn't know what to do, but we saw that the government said that it was £30 for each week. So me and Kie (Hughes) went into the shop with our calculator and walked around working out what we could get with £30.

"We paid for one and since then we've just had that receipt and filled the trolley up the same each time.

The boys, who are purchasing their stock from Aldi in Bromborough, have tried to make sure that they include items in the basket that people can use to make proper meals as well as some snacks for the kids.

Danny added: "We saw seven families yesterday and we've got eight to do today. Now we've got people contacting us and referring people to us.

"I lot of people are too ashamed to ask and have to swallow their pride, but we're here to help."

Food from Aldi is in the boot, ready to take back and be turned into parcels for local families who are struggling at the moment

Currently families can access free school meals through food parcels distributed by school catering firms or voucher schemes set up by schools for local supermarkets.

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson has said that a national supermarket voucher scheme is due to open on Monday, but Bromborough Rake FC insist that they will carry on with their project for as long as the money comes in and the demand is there.

"As long as people are in need, we'll try our best to help," said Danny.

Another teammate added: "We are actually now liaising with the local church, St Barnabas. They have asked that when we have finished sending out parcels if there are still people that we have in need to refer them over so they can help them as well."

Working with St Barnabas and local primary schools, the club hopes to be able to help people who are living just above the breadline but don't qualify for free school meals as well.

Anyone wishing to contribute to Bromborough Rake FC's GoFundMe page can do so by clicking here.