Gosport Borough chairman’s pride at being involved with ‘fantastic’ Feed a Family project

Iain McInnes has spoken of his pride at being part of a 'fantastic' project to come out of the coronavirus crisis.
Gosport Borough FC volunteer Clare Kaznowski (left) and club Covid-19 community response coordinator Keith Slater with food parcels, donated by Aldi, for those in need of the town in front of the club’s main stand. Picture by Debra RedpathGosport Borough FC volunteer Clare Kaznowski (left) and club Covid-19 community response coordinator Keith Slater with food parcels, donated by Aldi, for those in need of the town in front of the club’s main stand. Picture by Debra Redpath
Gosport Borough FC volunteer Clare Kaznowski (left) and club Covid-19 community response coordinator Keith Slater with food parcels, donated by Aldi, for those in need of the town in front of the club’s main stand. Picture by Debra Redpath

And the Gosport Borough chairman has been blown away by the army of volunteers and donations received from national and local chains following the launch of the 'Feed a Family in Need with the Boro' project.

Initially starting out as a discussion between McInnes and newly-appointed clubhouse manager Keith Slater, the club could not have imagined how crucial the idea would become.

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Fast forward five months from when the initiative was launched, and Gosport have helped with more than 2,000 food parcels being delivered to families that needed it most following the Covid-19 outbreak.

That's with a little help from 45 volunteers and support from shops in donating essentials.

It's given McInnes something to smile about during a difficult time for the football club.

'Since March - and we’re now in mid-August - not a penny has come into the football club from the football side of the football club - nothing,' he revealed.

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‘But having said that, the highlight - and what’s probably been worth going through the grief for - was what Keith and I decided to set up.’

Slater had arrived at the club just a few days before lockdown was imposed in the UK in mid-March.

It effectively left him without a role given that the clubhouse was closed due to government guidelines.

However, on the back of a discussion with McInnes, he became the club's Covid-19 community response co-ordinator after the project's launch.

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‘Keith had come from a local hotel chain he’d been involved in for a number of years,’ said McInnes.

‘He’s entitled to say, ‘I’ve been here three days, the game is off and I haven’t got a job.’

‘But we never had that conversation because that wasn’t the case.

‘There’s around 80,000 people living on this peninsular, it’s quite a big place, but it doesn’t get anything like the profile of dear old Portsmouth.

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‘We knew there were going to be tough times and we wanted to do something about it.

‘I asked Keith if he was up for it and his reply was ‘of course, I am,' so we launched ‘Feed the Family in Need with the Boro’.

'We didn’t have any food, we didn’t have any infrastructure, we didn’t have anything at all really - apart from a desire to do it.

‘We had a guy here who has been a lifelong Pompey and Gosport Borough supporter and he actually worked for Morrisons.

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‘We had a bit of luck with him getting us into Morrisons and they’ve supported us since day one.

‘We’ve had substantial buy-in from some of the national chains but also surprisingly from some of the local chains and it’s great because you’re getting fresh food.

‘It’s been a fantastic thing to be involved in.'

Slater thanked the support received from the Salvation Army when the initiative was at an early stage.

‘They made a big change, they said they really liked the idea and they told us we would get opposition,' he said.

‘They sort of mentored us through it.

‘It just started to pick up steam from there.

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‘We put up an advert for volunteers on the website and within three days we had 45 people registered.

‘The Co-op have been donating and we get reduced food that we buy from FareShare.

‘We were up to about 45 volunteers but the challenge is now a lot of the people who were furloughed are back at work.

‘Logistically, it has become more of a challenge but it makes you work a bit smarter.'