Farnham Town, who are forging ever-closer links with the community, are to highlight the work of the town’s food bank for the next two seasons.
The Combined Counties Premier Division South club will have the food bank logo on the front of their shirts.
It is possible thanks to the commitment and financial contributions from the club’s community partners, as the food bank itself is not paying for the promotion.
The logo will be displayed on Town’s first-team shirts for all home league matches and on the shirt sleeves for all away games.
The food bank will also be promoted in the clubhouse and around the ground.
Harriet Lanyon, project manager of the Farnham food bank, said: “We are extremely excited about the partnership and the support it will bring to the food bank.
“Many local people are currently struggling with rising living costs and energy prices. Any food or financial donations go a long way to helping support these families and individuals at this challenging time.
“Obviously this is not a typical shirt sponsorship as it is not appropriate that we would consider using our funds for such an activity.
“Instead, we are a mutual beneficiary of some extremely kind people and local businesses that not only want to support Farnham Town Football Club, but also wish to promote awareness of the food bank and how the wider community can support us.”
Over the course of the next two seasons, Farnham Town will introduce a number of initiatives that will enable the club’s supporters, sponsors and community partners to also support and make donations to the food bank.
These will include food donation collection points inside the clubhouse and within the ground at all home matches, as well as making entry to at least one home match free for spectators who take donations to the food bank.
Chairman Paul Tanner said: “It goes without saying how distressing it is that anyone in our local community is going hungry.
“With this in mind, the work Farnham food bank does in helping local families in such challenging times is, quite frankly, unbelievable and the club are delighted that we will be able to not only increase awareness of the food bank and how people can support it through donations, but also actively support it with our own initiatives.”
Tanner also praised the support of the club’s community partners.
“Like all football clubs, we are dependant on commercial revenue to cover our expenditure,” he said.
“Shirt sponsorship is a vital part of this commercial revenue and, together with Farnham food bank, we are extremely grateful for the support of certain individuals and key community partners who have made it financially possible for us to promote the food bank and its work, rather than requiring us to use the space to publicise a commercial business.”
If any business is interested in teaming up with the club to help the food bank initiative, or in becoming a Farnham Town community partner, email [email protected]
To learn more about helping the food bank, see https://farnham.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/