Dundee and Dundee United football fans are putting their rivalries aside to tackle food poverty with the launch of a charitable initiative.
Fans Supporting Foodbanks Dundee will be collecting food donations from supporters on big match days – starting this Saturday at Dundee United versus Partick Thistle.
The new group joins a network of fan-driven food banks across the UK, which stems from an anti-poverty project founded by football fans in Liverpool.
It comes amid a cost of living crisis caused by spiralling food and energy prices.
‘If you can, bring a can’
Marty Smith, 31, from Dundee, is leading the project.
He wants to show that football fans can come together, even if they back different teams, to support good causes.
He said: “Everyone is willing to set aside the rivalries between the two Dundee teams to tackle an issue which is going to become ever more present in the city over the next few months through the cost of living crisis.
“Our motto is: If you can, bring a can.
“Where else are you going to get 5,000 to 6,000 people in one place on a weekend?
“If even half of those brought a can, or some pasta, or some toiletries, it will be quite a big collection that we get.”
Marty says fans have been hugely supportive of the new initiative.
More than a dozen Dundee and Dundee United supporters have already signed up to volunteer.
Marty said: “We’ve got a network of people who are willing to give up their Saturday afternoons to come collect some food and talk about some of the issues around food poverty in our city.
“We’re excited to get started and we just want to do our bit to help our communities.”
‘We want to help struggling communities’
Donations will be gathered at Dundee and Dundee United home league matches every weekend.
Fans for Foodbanks Dundee will set up a collection point outside the stadiums so supporters can drop off donations ahead of the game.
These will then be distributed to foodbanks across Dundee.
Marty, who works for Samaritans Scotland, said: “We will be alternating between foodbanks week-to-week.
“We’re not just focused on one area – we want to go right across the city and help the communities that are struggling.”
The Dundee group is a branch of Fans for Foodbanks Scotland, which Marty helped to launch earlier this month.
He started the initiative alongside football fans from Celtic, Partick Thistle and Kilmarnock.
It has been inspired by the original Fans Supporting Foodbanks organisation, set up in 2015, which saw Liverpool and Everton followers come together to show solidarity with those experiencing poverty.
Marty said: “In Liverpool, they started off collecting donations out of a wheelie bin.
“Now they provide 25% of all food donations to north Liverpool food banks, just from collections at the games.
“It’s obviously an idea which there’s a lot of support for down south – so we thought, why not just bring it up here as well?”
Those behind the Scottish initiative want all 42 teams in the top divisions in Scotland to get on board.
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