Man Utd & Man City Come Together to Donate £100k to Food Banks During Coronavirus Crisis

​Manchester United and Manchester City have put aside their rivalry to come together and donate £100,000 to help food banks in Greater Manchester 'meet increased demand from vulnerable people' as a result of the coronavirus crisis. 

With the pandemic continuing to impact the lives of so many people around the world, clubs and individuals have recently announced plans to help support those in need. 

Chelsea recently made the club's Millennium Hotel at Stamford Bridge available for NHS staff to stay at free of charge in an attempt to provide support.

Elsewhere, former Manchester United defender ​Gary Neville announced that his two Manchester hotels will also be made available free of charge to NHS workers.

​United and City have now come together to help support food banks as they look to meet the increased demands from those in vulnerable positions as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. 

In an official announcement on both ​Man Utd and ​Man City's websites, they said that each club will donate £50,000 to the Trussell Trust. The Trussell Trust support a network of over 1,200 food-bank centres, including 19 in the Greater Manchester area - all of which will be the beneficiaries of this donation.

This will help local food banks increase capacity and aid them as they have been impacted by the loss of food donations on matchdays through the MCFC Fans' Foodbank Support and MUFC Fans’ Foodbank.

In a joint official statement, the two clubs said: “We are proud of the role our supporters play in helping local food banks and recognise the increased strain likely to be placed on these charities by the impact of coronavirus. At a time of challenge for our community, we are pleased to come together with our fans to help vulnerable members of society in a City United.”

MCFC Fans' Foodbank Support also commented on the donation, saying: “We're delighted that ​City and United have donated such a huge amount to Fans Supporting Foodbanks. This will be an enormous help for the Greater Manchester community at a time when people need it most. 

"We'd like to thank everyone on both sides for demonstrating that hunger doesn't wear club colours, and for the show of community solidarity.”

As for the Manchester United Supporters Trust (MUST), a spokesperson revealed: “MUST has been operating our Fans' Foodbank donation collection service on Manchester United home matchdays for some time but, with the impact of coronavirus, we have been forced to switch to appealing for online cash donations only. 

"The news that Manchester United and Manchester City have agreed to make such a large contribution is fantastic news and will make a huge difference supporting vulnerable people in communities across Manchester at this time.”

The Trussell Trust’s senior operations manager Rachel Macklin explained how the donation will help enormously, before adding that the Trust are 'truly grateful'.

“As the coronavirus pandemic develops, more people than ever may need help from food banks across our network. This situation presents a huge additional pressure on already overstretched resources. We may start to see a reduction in food donations and volunteers may become unavailable if they are in the at-risk categories or are self-isolating.

"We know we won’t be able to do this alone, so we are truly grateful for the support Manchester United and Manchester City are showing local food banks. On behalf of food banks in our network in Manchester, we thank you so much.”

During a time of such great difficulty, Manchester United and Manchester City have put aside their rivalries and recognised that the situation is much, much larger than football.