How Newcastle United fans are tackling food poverty one match at a time: 'There's more need than ever'

Newcastle United fans are renowned for their passion and baring their chests in freezing temperatures – but their commitment to tackling food poverty is also Premier League.

The NUFC Fans Foodbank has become a familiar sight at St James’ Park since collections began in February 2017 when the Toon Army were following their team against Derby County in the Championship in the heart of the Mike Ashley era.

Volunteers have been collecting food and cash at matches ever since to help out Newcastle Foodbank – the biggest food bank in the country.

The fan-powered initiative has seen a global pandemic, a cost of living crisis and Newcastle United transformed into one of the world’s wealthiest clubs under its Saudi-backed owners.

With the Big Issue in town for our Community Roadshow, we popped down ahead of the rearranged Carabao Cup game with AFC Wimbledon to see the NUFC Fans Foodbank in action.

A van pulled up next to the famous Gallowgate End with an awning, a table, a card machine and a team of hardy volunteers committed to the cause.

“On a local basis, Newcastle United is a community club. Whatever your age, race, gender, we’re all there supporting Newcastle United. It’s a community coming together and we’re about supporting and helping people in our local community. That’s what drives us to do it,” Colin Whittle tells the Big Issue. He’s one of the co-founders alongside Steve Hastie and Bill Corcoran.

“Ideally we wouldn’t want to be here. I’d like to go for a pint before the match rather than collecting. I’d like to get to the point where I can say, ‘Remember when we used to do a food bank collection here and it’s no longer necessary.’ Until that happens, we’ll continue collecting and do what we can to support the community.”

Newcastle fans weren’t the first supporters in the country to start collecting food and cash to meet the growing food poverty crisis.

That honour belongs to Everton and Liverpool fans. Fans Supporting Foodbanks – set up by Evertonian Dave Kelly and Liverpool fan and now Liverpool West Derby MP Ian Byrne – inspired Whittle and co to set up their own collections at Newcastle games.

“It was around the time the I, Daniel Blake film was. That was based in the region and it touched you and you realised there was poverty on your doorstep,” says Whittle, who was on the board at the Newcastle Supporters’ Trust at the time.

“We came back from a Football Supporters’ Association meeting and said we can’t have that on our doorstep and we should do something about it.”

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There is now a network of fan food banks across the country – from Manchester City to West Ham and plenty of others in between – harnessing the unique power the national sport has to move and mobilise.

The initiative is driven from the terraces with football clubs – even in the multi-billion mega-corporation, Super League-touting era – still at the heart of communities.

A partnership with the club has been key to keeping the initiative going. Within 10 minutes of collections starting ahead of the AFC Wimbledon game, the Newcastle United club doctor pops down with a donation.

First-team players from both men’s and women’s teams also show their support with visits to Newcastle Foodbank while collections have also happened at Sam Fender gigs, Rugby League World Cup games and a whole host of other events. 

The feel-good factor from the new ownership helps too – even if the stain of sportswashing still rankles with some supporters.

Football supporters, after all, are a superstitious lot and if a fan donated for the last match’s home win then expect it to become ritual, the Big Issue is told.

“The good thing is that it’s been embraced by the supporters, there’s no doubt about it,” says Whittle. “There are people that are contributing every match. There is that willingness and that awareness of what’s happening. The community is putting in and supporting. It’s sad that this initiative is necessary but it’s great to see that support.

“The amount of food packages that the food bank has had to distribute has gone off the scale. So there’s more need than ever at the moment. We’ll be here every match, rain, hail – I was going to say shine but it very rarely shines in Newcastle. We’re here when it’s cold and even colder.”

Whittle’s joined in high-vis and rattling buckets by John McCorry, the chief executive of Newcastle Foodbank.

McCorry has spent seven years running food banks in the city, originally operating the Newcastle West End Foodbank before the operation took over the city.

In that time, food prices have skyrocketed and so has hunger.

The number of food parcels provided in the North East actually declined by 3% in 2023-24 compared to the previous year, according to Trussell figures.

But, overall, the number of parcels given out by Trussell food banks in the region has risen by 68% in the last five years.

McCorry said the impact of the NUFC Fans Foodbank has increased awareness of the problem and helped the food back feed more people.

“In the early days we really didn’t have enough food to meet the demand because the issue, even though people knew it was there, didn’t really have the profile in and around the North East in the city that it does now,” says McCorry.

“The food bank’s supporting more people than it has ever before and that means that the amount of food that’s needed to help people out has increased more than ever before. Coming to the football matches and doing the collections, the support from the fans, the club and other people have really helped us respond to that demand.

“So it really is a city united and we’re very proud to be part of this city. It’s just a great sense of community overall.”

As fans file into the ground or grab a pie and a pint, there’s no shortage of supporters coming over with tins of food and cupboard essentials and a few notes and coins. 

Over the night, the 51,739 spectators in attendance collected £1,302.18 which one of the owners, Jamie Reuben, doubles to £2,604.36 as part of a long-standing commitment.

In fact, the initiative is fast approaching £1m in donations, one of the organisers tells the Big Issue.

It’s testament to the people of a city where the response to adversity has always been to galvanise with grit and graft.

As Whittle put it: “Newcastle is based in the city centre, the centre of our region. In economic and social terms over the years, we have lost big industries: engineering, the pits, the shipyards etc. The one thing that’s always been here is Newcastle United at the centre of the community. It’s all about helping each other.”

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