Twerton Foodbank donation drive at Saturday's match.

Building on last season's award of Conference South Community Club of the Year award to Bath City, the club have further strengthened links with the local community by designating Saturday December 20th match against Wealdstone as a fundraiser for the Bath Foodbank at Rose Cottage, High Street, Twerton

Bath Foodbank started up in the summer of 2011 and works on a voucher system. Vouchers are given out by local charities, social and health services, churches and schools. Each voucher can be exchanged for three days' meals for the household. The food is packed according to a list appropriate to the size of the household. In Bath, 45% of vouchers are given out because of benefit delays and changes; 33% because of debt or low income. High heating costs, sickness, job loss and domestic violence are some of the other causes of households suffering and going short of food. Three days is the period assessed as being the minimum time it takes for a client to receive longer-term assistance. Last financial year in the Twerton ward of Bath alone, 287 households received aid from Bath Foodbank. These households included 146 children. In total we’ve handed out 88 tonnes of food since we set up.

Bath Foodbank relies heavily on donations. They are currently fundraising to pay for a fourth storage container and need another £3000 so they can pay for it rather than lease. They can only collect food that’s on their “shopping lists” – all long-life, tinned or dried foods. The items that they are consistently short of are tinned meat products, long-life milk, long-life fruit juice, sugar, instant mashed potato, tinned sponge pudding and chocolate. We are somehow always well-stocked with baked beans, soup, pasta and tinned vegetables.

To this end, there will be buckets around the ground during the match for cash donations and a permanent donation basket has been installed in Charlie's for food donations at the match and in the future. Please feel free to donate food, cash or both! Dan Bowman, Paul Williams and Bob Chester from the club were at Rose Cottage tonight helping pack deliveries for those that desperately need food at this time of year especially.

A really worthy cause - thanks for posting this, Marc. Do you know if it's being featured in this week's Chronicle?

Yes, photos were taken tonight so hopefully it should be in the Chronicle on Thursday to publicise the match and the donation drive. Please spread the word around. Obviously, the Rovers match has somewhat dominated everything the last couple of weeks leaving us not much run-up to publicise. They do a brilliant job down there and could do with their profile being raised and it really helps embed the club in its local community.

Great work Marc and great to see the club helping out its neighbours. I'll be sure to donate on Sat.

There will be coverage in the programme on Saturday with pics and a few words about this.

This is a great initiative.

I went to the Derby food bank a couple of weeks ago. We have been collecting food to donate as an office.

Interesting that many people were struggling because they had lost their jobs, run out of money and were waiting for benefits. They had to go to the food bank as a last resort to feed their family!!

Yes, Pete, I did some deliveries for them on Monday and, let's say, some people are closer to him than you would imagine. As mentioned, they tend to give three days' worth of food. Three days doesn't seem much but I expect it is a bloody lifetime if you are trying to feed a family.

Marc, has anything been posted on the Wealdstone forum flagging this up?

Thanks for the link Marc.

I'll tweet Wealdstone now Martin, and look at their forum.

I tried registering for their forum but they don't like gmail or Hotmail addresses so I'm stumped!

Any idea how much was raised yesterday? Seemed to be some healthy donations and Wealdstone fans' apparently very generous too..

Not yet counted up yet, Tim but the basket was completely full by kick off and, yes, the Wealdstone supporters were brilliantly generous as well. I will give a total here when the Foodbank get back to me and thanks to all for all your contributions.

Refusing to be overshadowed by the Wealdstone Raider's appearance, the Bath City Foodbank donation drive at the home match against Wealdstone on Saturday December 20th December was a great success. The large collection basket was full of essential food goods requested by the Bath Foodbank (http://bath.foodbank.org.uk/) well before kick-off thanks to the astonishing generosity of the Bath City supporters. This will help those in need throughout Christmas and beyond. Fans of the Romans also helped donate a massive £407.40 which will aid in the purchase of a shipping container for storage of food at Bath Foodbank's base in Batheaston. It was also mentioned by collectors that the Wealdstone supporters were exceptionally generous with cash donations as well. The basket will be a long-term fixture in Charlie's bar at Twerton Park for further food donations at home games. Thanks to all supporters for their generosity.

Don't forget that the basket is still in Charlie's (next to the Christmas tree) today for donations of tinned and dried food. There is a morrison's and co-op in front of Twerton if you want to pick something up. Let's keep up the good work!

Don't forget that the Foodbank basket is still in Charlie's for donations of tinned meat products, long-life milk, long-life fruit juice, sugar, instant mashed potato, tinned sponge pudding and chocolate. Morrisons is definitely open if you don't want to carry tins too far. Let's keep up the generosity!

Marc Monitor wrote:Don't forget that the Foodbank basket is still in Charlie's for donations of tinned meat products, long-life milk, long-life fruit juice, sugar, instant mashed potato, tinned sponge pudding and chocolate. Morrisons is definitely open if you don't want to carry tins too far. Let's keep up the generosity!

Where in Charlie's is the Foodbank basket as I looked for it yesterday but couldn't find it?

Thanks for that, Alison and sorry, I wasn't there as I was stuck on the hard shoulder of the M4. I thought it was by the Christmas tree and the large TV. I will check with the club.

Hi Alison, apologies for that. It appears that the basket didn't appear in the bar after Christmas and I haven't been there to ensure that it was. It will be in situ for the next home match.