Last month, for the fourth year running, West Ham United players and staff held a foodbank collection for Newham Foodbank. They also invited our matchday volunteers to Rush Green to collect the donations, which filled the foodbank van.
Aaron Cresswell was the organiser, who came over to chat with us at length in the players’ canteen before training and loading up the van with a number of other first teamers. Our regular foodbank supporter Lukasz Fabianski also gave us a cheery welcome.
Goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero also came across to chat, and we talked about his time spent playing for Wrexham in the north west, and later as Liverpool coach under Rafa Benitez and coaching Pepe Reina, not long after he’d obtained his coaching badges. Xavi had also coached in China under Manuel Pellegrini.
We also had a chat with Max Kilman, about his time as a youngster playing for Newham’s Genesis Futsal team, and friends in common at the club. Two years ago we supplied Genesis with about 50 pairs of Umbro futsal trainers that Umbro had spare, and we’ve supplied them with training shirts since then.
Our current youth striker Gideon Kodua, presently on loan at Wycombe Wanderers, also had a spell at Genesis. Looking around the canteen, I spotted a group of framed photos of salt and pepper pots, paying homage to Cassettari’s Café on Barking Road and the radical new coaching methods discussed by our players after training at that time.
The display was so subtle, you wonder if new players are made aware of the significance in introducing new and radical coaching methods to the sport. As an aside, Phil Cassettari’s son went on to open another café in Colchester a few years ago. Here’s the story on his dad’s fame to local press at the time: Not every café owner can re-count how the plan to win the World Cup in 1966 was hatched. But, in a round-about way, Phil Cassettari can.
The youngster was just eight when Bobby Moore lifted the Jules Rimet trophy for England – although some would substitute ‘England’ for ‘West Ham’. And it’s said it was on the tables of Mr Cassettari’s dad’s cafe, in Barking Road, E13, that Moore, along with Martin Peters, Geoff Hurst, Malcolm Allison, and others, came up with the winning formula – using salt and pepper shakers and other utensils. Mr Cassettari, who has just opened a new café in Museum Street, in Colchester, said: ‘They literally used what was on the table to plot their tactics. It sounds silly now because of what goes into football tactics these days but that’s that they did.
‘The cafe never claimed it – but plenty of others have – that we played our part in the winning of that World Cup. I like to think it was our claim to fame.’ As we get towards the end of each year it gets busier. We’ve an annual commitment to support the Ambition Aspire Achieve Kevin Jenkins Christmas Toy Appeal, and again this year we’ve donated several boxes of sports clothing and chocolate selection boxes for the appeal.
Another 2,000+ chocolates were also delivered to a number of local foodbanks. Sports clothing and chocolates were also donated to Newham Boys Boxing Club. We also made our annual donation for the wonderful Viv Archer’s books for local children without books of their own initiative at Newham Bookshop.
Regarding foodbank support, we stretched our activities as far as Colchester, and added over 40 foodbanks during the year who now depend on us. We were fortunate enough to receive grant funding from the London City Airport Community Fund, which provided over £4,000-worth of food.
With that, and donations on a matchday and on-line, we raised enough to provide 20 tonnes of food to the community, worth approx. £80.000. By comparison, last year we delivered £57,000. In December we kept up our support of the unsung heroes at the London Ambulance Service Dockside Control Centre.
Call-takers here, who cover all of London within the M25 north of the Thames, were expected to receive 7,000 daily calls over the Christmas and New Year periods. We supplied them with a few tubs of Heroes chocolates to help get them through their busy shifts.
This year, we expect that the demand won’t be any less, and already we’ve received requests for food and clothing support from another two local groups. We’re fortunate to get the support of our fans on Stratford Walk, outside Hackney Wick Station and the Supporters’ Club as well as QE Park matchday visitors.
It’s a shame this activity has to happen, and we share the thoughts and mission statement expressions of other foodbank fan groups around the country to ‘close us down’. In the meantime, we will continue to deliver to our foodbanks via the council’s Food Alliance Hub, Community Food Enterprise and occasional outside of Newham deliveries by our volunteers.
As always, we welcome any extra pre-match help handling donations or giving out ISF badges, even for half an hour or so on Stratford Walk or outside Hackney Wick Station. Otherwise please drop us a line at ironsfoodbank@gmail.com for more information.
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