Lordswood Football Club to admit fans to their Southern Counties East Football League match in exchange for donations to the Medway Foodbank

Fans can watch live football at Lordswood tonight in exchange for three items of food.

The Southern Counties East side are collecting for the Medway Foodbank and spectators can watch their game against Bearsted tonight (Tuesday) for free, in exchange for a donation at the turnstile.

Club chairman Glen Parkes hopes the initiative works both ways as he looks to welcome back some of their own fans too.

He said: “We decided to do it when we heard that some of our fans who would usually come to games on a regular basis started not turning up, we were wondering why. They said they couldn’t afford it because of the cost of coming to a game, buying food and other things. We thought it would be a great idea to help out Medway Foodbank and also to get fans to come back and enjoy a game of football, with a few items of food they can donate.

“I went to the committee, they all agreed and thought it was a good idea, so we went for it, it was a spur of the moment thing.

“We have been really lucky, Bearsted Football Club who we are playing have said what a cracking idea, the first team players and the management have all agreed to donate £10 each, so to start off we have £150 going into a pot where we can go and buy food with and I have had committee members who are bringing bags of food.

“People have been really interested in it. We are trying to pull together and do what we can. We have asked for a minimum of three items, there is a list people can see, if just 10 people bring three items then that is probably enough to feed three families.”

It will mean the club losing revenue, as they will still have costs to stage the match, but the chairman said: “We will work around it, that is not the be all and end all, we are not the biggest