Who ate all the pies: Salford City donate leftover food to homeless

Class of ’92-backed Salford City are helping to call full-time on hunger by donating pies, soup and cheesecakes to the homeless.

The National League North side, who are part-owned by Manchester United legends Ryan Giggs, Nicky Butt, Paul Scholes and Phil and Gary Neville, saw their Moor Lane clash Tamworth fall foul of the cold weather just 90 minutes before kick-off on February 24.

But rather than let the half-time grub go to waste, joint-managers Anthony Johnson and Bernard Morley dropped off 150 pies, vats of leek and potato soup and 40 cheesecakes at Manchester-based homeless charity Coffee4Craig.

Joint-manager Johnson said: “The game being off today, we drove down to a homeless shelter with 150-odd pies and cheese cakes that weren’t able to be used today so obviously we’ve been down here to share the good feeling that we have at the club.

“It’s great to be able to help people who were really pleased with what we have brought down so it’s fantastic.”

The game was due to go ahead on Saturday after the referee deemed the pitch playable following a 10am inspection. But a later look found that the playing surface was too frozen and the match was called off.

With a fortnight until the Ammies, who are level on points with Harrogate Town at the top of the National League North league table, play at Moor Lane again, the club decided to contact donate their leftovers to a local charity.

The initiative has long been planned, with Salford drawing up a list of homelessness charities, but this is the first time the club have donated supplies.

Hendrix Lancaster, co-founder of Coffee4Craig, shared his gratitude with the club and added: “People are very, very generous.”

Salford City are not the only club who have kicked on with their efforts to dismantle poverty. Premier League outfit Everton have hosted sleep-outs and raised £245,000 to fund a project to house 16 to 23-year-olds. Fellow top tier club Southampton also joined forces with The Big Issue last summer, resulting in employment opportunities for vendors at St Mary’s Stadium.

Pic credit: Salford City