Ipswich and Norwich fans raise money for foodbanks at derby

Ipswich and Norwich football fans put rivalries to one side during Saturday's match to raise thousands for foodbanks.

Some £4,790 was donated through collections or online during the 2-2 draw at Portman Road or online.

Town fans collected £3,033, while City supporters gave £1,757 to the Families in Need (FIND) charity.

In addition, the Norwich City store, On the Stall City, donated all its profits on derby day to the charity.

Ipswich Town supporters joined the national scheme Fans Supporting Foodbanks (FSF) in January.

Organiser, Charlie Nixon, said the initiative was about "looking beyond club colours" to stop people going hungry.

"We're just a group of fans that recognise there's an issue in society with poverty and we've got the football club and the power of football fans to do something about it," he said.

"We didn't realise when we launched it how much it would snowball; we didn't realise how generous fans on both sides of the border would be.

"Overall we were expecting a couple of hundred pounds online. All of these things that we do to protect our communities shows a little solidarity for each other."

Mr Nixon said the independent fans club planned to raise more cash for FIND by running collections at matches on a monthly basis.

The FSF scheme was launched in 2015 by fans of Liverpool and Everton, with the belief that "hunger doesn't wear club colours".

So far this year, Ipswich Town FSF has raised £5,600 for Suffolk-based FIND and made up crates of physical donations.

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