In December 2019, following consultation with Newham Council, LS185 and the LLDC, we were given permission to collect donations for the Newham Foodbank based in Beckton. They supply food parcels through 7 centres throughout Newham. The demand on foodbanks had grown progressively and we were hopeful that with over 1 million visitors attending games at the London Stadium over a season, that we could make a difference to our local community. Following the successful trial at the Leicester City game, we were given permission to continue collecting at every home game, subject to any ‘high risk’ games. By the end of February we were collecting approx. £700 per game in food value and cash.
Our new home
West Ham United have kindly donated a branded gazebo to us, sited outside the Aquatics Centre on Stratford Walk, which was in place in time for the recent game vs Liverpool.
We also welcomed for the third year our Pearly friends the King and Prince of Highgate, who helped us raise a record £1500 which will buy another 1 ½ tonnes of food worth £6k for our local foodbanks.
We met our good friends Ian Byrne MP and @Spirtofshankly and had support from incredible fundraiser Sam from the Carpenters Estate Warm Hub. #hungerdoesntwearclubcolours
Irons in Morocco
On September 8th, an earthquake occurred in Morocco’s Atlas Mountains, southwest of Marrakech. The earthquake killed thousands of people, injured many more, and left thousands homeless in both towns and remote mountain villages. This was the worst natural disaster the country had experienced in over fifty years.
In response to this tragedy, John Ratomski, and stadium announcer, and fellow Hammer Martin Godleman visited Morocco to witness the situation first-hand. They were there with the British Moroccan Society, Canada’s Global Medic, the people of Dar Tassa, the local youth association, and Ratomski’s BMS contact in Marrakech, Ella Williams.
With the help of West Ham fans’ donations, they were able to witness some of the 17 tonnes of food delivered to the region and £5,000 worth of new clothing to the people of Morocco. Nayef Aguerd and his fellow players also made generous donations to the cause. Workers gloves were also donated to the villagers who were still removing fallen stones from buildings with their bare hands.
Apart from providing vital aid, they also brought smiles to the faces of the children by providing them with goodies and stacks of West Ham shirts donated by the Club.
Additionally, they organized a drawing and colouring competition for pre-school children at Dar Tassa village and gave out prizes at the end. They also organized a five-a-side football competition, in which the winning teams got to wear West Ham shirts as well as Irons Supporting Foodbanks shirts.
The West Ham fans’ kind donations made all of this possible and show as a club just how far and wide we reach! Come on you Irons!
2024 Easter Eggs Appeal
As we’ve done in recent years, we’ll be delivering Easter chocolates to a number of local foodbanks and community groups in the area. Statistics show that there are over 43,000 Newham youngsters living below the poverty line, and we hope to supply some of them with a chocolate treat this Easter.
Donations can be dropped off at our pre-match collection point on Stratford Walk or on-line cash donations to support us at www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ironssupportingfoodbanks2023
Please support us if you can by donating to our JustGiving page.
Hammers fans supporting the London Ambulance Service
Occasionally our charity foodbank supplier HIS Church provides offers of pallet loads of Lindt chocolates. We felt that from time to time we should hand out a treat to the numerous volunteers who give up their spare time to help out at foodbanks, homeless centres, community groups etc.
More recently we wanted to thank staff in the NHS and Ambulance Service and delivered a tower of chocolates to nurses and staff at the children’s Rainbow Ward at Newham General Hospital. This led to a chat with their first responders, the unsung heroes of our emergency services. We then visited their Dockside Control Centre with a further chocolates donation.
Within an hour we were contacted by the LAS Health and Wellbeing Support Team. They explained that London is split into 5 zones within the M25 boundary. Each zone has a Wellbeing vehicle which visits all of the first responder teams, offering hot soup, snacks and a debrief. Our Lindt chocolates are now in each of these vehicles, as well as the call centres and the Waterloo Road HQ.
Recently we were invited to tour the HQ and chat with some of the first responders and H & WS team. Some incredible people, working 12 hour shifts, managing 700+ vehicles, and handling approx 8,000 calls a day.
Thank you West Ham United fan family for helping us to recognise and support the unsung heroes of London Ambulance Service.
Mixed Success for Irons Supporting Foodbanks at East London Community Heroes Awards
Earlier this month at the Annual Awards in East London hosted by Rotary Stratford at the Tereza Joanne Function Rooms, King George V Dock, ISF were again finalists and received a Highly Commended acknowedgement in the Outstanding Initiative in Community Cohesion category, the same as in 2022.
Better success came to ISF founder John Ratomski, who received the East London Community Hero of the Year 2023 Award.
ISF are shortlisted for another award, which they won last year, in the Newham Chamber Business Awards, for Civic and Community Engagement which takes place at Stratford Town Hall on 23rd November.
Since they began almost 4 years ago, ISF have delivered over £1 million of new clothes for homeless groups in the Newham, east London and Essex areas, and several £100,000’s of food and seasonal chocolates to local foodbanks, all with the support and backing of West Ham fans, who, as supporters, support their local community more than any other club supporters group in the country.
West Ham United recognise Irons Supporting Foodbanks Founder John Ratomski
As part of the Premier League Supports campaign this week, West Ham United have recognised Irons Supporting Foodbanks Founder John Ratomski as the Club’s ‘One of Our Own’ recipient.
The ‘Premier League Supports’ campaign gives clubs the opportunity to celebrate the positive impact they have on their local communities. The campaign will be visible on-pitch at all Premier League fixtures between 1 April and 9 April.
To mark the campaign, West Ham United has recognised Ratomski as the Club’s ‘One of Our Own’ recipient, with a special presentation taking place ahead of the Club’s fixture against Southampton at the London Stadium.
The Irons Supporting Foodbanks #bringaquid Campaign
Irons Supporting Foodbanks in conjunction with the West Ham Network have announced the beginning of their ‘Bring a Quid’ initiative to raise awareness of the group’s work and also raise much needed funds for the underprivileged across the Newham borough and beyond. There is an ever increasing pressure on the Foodbanks as more and more people are unfortunately having to turn to them for support as the cost of living crisis hits us all.
The majority of cash donations are through ISF’s matchday collections, where currently we average £350-400 each matchday – but we need more to help those less lucky than ourselves. It doesn’t take a lot to increase, we appreciate people across the board are suffering as times are very tough for us all – but it only takes a quid to help, that’s all! A quid can make a massive difference!
April sees a number of West Ham home games with league games against Southampton, Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool – in addition to the Europa Conference League quarter final game at the London Stadium and the FA Youth Cup Semi-Final – in total, we could see in total over 325,000 fans attend those games. Even if only 1% of that group donated a quid, that would result in over £3,000 cash donations – which, due to the ISF partnership with HIS Church, would result in £15,000 worth of food becoming available to the various organisations the ISF works with across the borough and into Essex.
We are kicking off this initiative with a 24-hour live stream from 5pm on Friday 31st March with our friends at the West Ham Network – which will involve contributions from other West Ham fan channels, West Ham players and staff as well as special guests.
This Sunday 2nd April also sees the return of 3 generations of Pearly Kings who will be collecting with the ISF at the usual location on Stratford Walk and will be interviewed pitch-side before the game to talk about their activities supporting local communities. Donations from fans unable to make the games can be made anytime here www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/ironssupportingfoodbanks2022
More help needed
Our partners at One Newham advise that there are many families struggling with a lack of online access.
If anyone has a spare unused smartphone, tablet or laptop please drop us a line or contact https://skillsenterprise.co.uk/ directly.
Colin Milne Remembered
Friends of the late Colin Milne, a life-long West Ham United fan have contributed to a Trust Fund created in his name to benefit local foodbanks. Over £800 has been raised allowing Newham Foodbank to buy £4,000-worth of the food that they need from HIS Church, the emergency goods redistribution charity based in Lincs.
Foodbank trustee Adeola Osunbade said ‘Words cannot express our gratitude as we serve a diverse community and this donation will enable us to get a good variety of items to meet an increasing need for food supplies that HIS Church is able to provide. Thank you so much.’
One of Colin’s friends added ‘When Colin was dying we talked to him about creating a legacy to help those in need, in his name. He didn’t hesitate on wanting it to be in support of local charities and was a passionate supporter of Food banks and homelessness in Newham. We all are. We have supported the good work that Rev Elwin Cockett does over the years. The need grew, as you know, when we moved from the Boleyn and the community was shattered. It would be lovely to remember Colin in this way. He was an amazingly giving and caring man.
PPE Visors
During lockdown, Merseyside’s Fans Supporting Foodbank donated funds to the Knowsley PPE Hub for the purchase of PPE-making equipment and raw materials for the manufacture of visors for local hospitals and front-line workers in Merseyside. After a few weeks they were able to offer the visors nationally via the established football foodbank groups in Newcastle, Huddersfield, Manchester City and United, and West Ham. We identified the hospitals in East London and Essex and were able to have delivered 1,000 visors locally by volunteer Nigel Kahn
We also distributed a further 300 visors to local care homes in Redbridge.