Crawley Town staff and players have teamed up with principal sponsor, The People’s Pension, to fund four weeks of meals for local NHS staff. The initiative was initially set up by our catering partners, Strong Flavours, to provide 100 meals per week for staff at Crawley and East Surrey hospitals, who are battling the Coronavirus on the frontline.
Head of Commercial, Joe Comper, spoke of a community spirit to be proud of, saying: “I spoke to Nick Corbett, Director of Strong Flavours, who said he was setting up a scheme to fund meals for NHS staff locally. We decided to put it out to all staff and players, to see if they wanted to donate £20 of their April wages to get the scheme started, and I was delighted, but not surprised, with the response from everyone, both operationally and playing wise, at the club.
“Immediately we were able to fund a couple of weeks’ worth of meals. At the start of the outbreak, The People’s Pension had asked me if there was any way they could help us to support the community, so I put this idea to them and they jumped at the chance to offer help, by matching our donation to the fund and between us we’re providing four weeks’ worth of meals for our local NHS workers.
“I’m proud that the club has the community spirit to put something like this together in the space of days, and I’m also proud to have a principal sponsor who is so keen to support their local community as well.”
Patrick Heath-Lay, Chief Executive Officer for The People’s Pension, said: “As a business deeply rooted in the Crawley community, we are always looking at ways to support the local area. Like everybody, we are hugely grateful to the incredible efforts of NHS workers both across the country and locally.
“We are delighted to be able to partner with Crawley Town and Strong Flavours in this fantastic community initiative.”
Nick Corbett, Director at Strong Flavours, said: “Its been great to see over the last few weeks, so many initiatives and communities coming together to support the NHS and the job that they are doing right now. We wanted to get involved and support in the best way we know how = providing delicious food. Last week we set ourselves a target to raise enough money to send in 100 homemade ready meals each a week to the frontline staff at Crawley Hospital & the Surrey and Sussex Healthcare Trust, to show our support and gratitude for the job that they are doing during these dangerous times.. We are delighted that all of the team at Crawley Town FC and The People’s Pension were are able to contribute in this way and get the idea of to a flying start. We are extremely grateful for the money they have donated and we hope other businesses and supporters could look to contribute in a similar way in the coming weeks.”
The first set of meals were delivered to the hospitals today, with weekly drop offs planned throughout May. Beyond May, a fund has been set up for supporters to further back the Strong Flavours campaign. Supporters can donate here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/providing-meals-for-front-line-nhs-staff
Pictured (L-R) Nick Corbett (Strong Flavours Director), Tom Allman (Crawley Town FC General Manager), Joe Comper (Crawley Town FC Head of Commercial) & frontline staff at Crawley Hospital.
