Rovers players and staff, coupled with colleagues from Doncaster Rovers Belles and Doncaster Rugby League have been busy this month, door dropping food hampers to residents across Doncaster who are in isolation.
Platinum Plus partner LNER funded 80-hampers which were distributed as part of Club Doncaster Foundation’s Tackling Loneliness project.
A recent study from the Office National Statistics (ONS) showed that 2.6 million adults reported that they felt lonely often or always while 7.4 million adults reported that their well-being had been affected through them having felt lonely in the past seven days.
Club Doncaster Foundation have joined other Club Community Organisations (CCO) across the United Kingdom to help combat loneliness.
Chief executive of the Foundation John Davis said: “As the Foundation, we’ve been supporting people throughout the pandemic and this offer of support by LNER has helped us do even more over the Christmas period. We pride ourselves on being a family club and you can see that from the way this initiative has been delivered.”
Following an early morning training session, the players arrived at the stadium ready to distribute the food hampers to the Doncaster residents who need them most.
Rovers defender Tom Anderson added: “It’s been like this since March now, and it can get on top of people. I want to say a thank you to LNER for producing these hampers. It’s just little things but it can make a big difference when people are having to shield and not be with their families”.
Group head of marketing and communications Shaun Lockwood said: “2020 has been an incredibly tough year for everyone and while this is only a small gesture and cannot make up for not being able to see family and friends, we hope that it shows that even if people are alone, they are not forgotten.
“This has been an initiative that everyone across the club has been involved in, with children from our academy helping to pack the hampers, and staff from Doncaster Rovers Belles, Doncaster Rugby League and Club Doncaster helping to support the Rovers players in the delivery of hampers as part of the Foundation’s isolation project.
“A special thank you to our partner, Bidfood, for finding the contents of the hampers and of course to LNER for funding them. We’re looking forward to following this up in the New Year where we hope to help reconnect people in 2021.”