Stenhousemuir FC to deliver some festive cheer this Christmas

Stenhousemuir Football Club hopes to spread some Christmas joy as they unveil their festive programme of support in the local community during this holiday season.

The professional football club who were awarded Community Anchor Organisation status earlier this year for their community focussed response to the pandemic, has laid out a detailed plan of support for vulnerable people and those isolating throughout the Christmas period.

This includes a commitment to maintain their free shopping and collection service throughout the holiday period, and their free weekly hot meals delivery service.  However, to add some additional festive cheer, this is to be boosted by a delivery of a free locally sourced food hamper, a freshly prepared three course Christmas Dinner, and a two course New year’s Dinner.

Club Chairman Iain McMenemy said,

“It’s been a really tough year for everyone, but it’s been particularly hard for those who may be isolated, vulnerable, or with underlying health conditions.  Christmas is usually a time where families come together, but that might not be possible for everyone this year due to the virus.

“Therefore, we at the club, along with a number of community partners and volunteers, made it our mission to try and pull out all the stops this Christmas.

“We have been continuing to support around 90 households since March of this year, looking after everything from shopping, to picking up prescriptions and delivering two free hot meals per week.  Thanks to the efforts of our community partners and some local businesses and organisations, we’ve been able to enhance our support through the festive period.

“Thanks to support received from the SPFL Trust, we’ve just delivered over fifty Christmas hampers packed with locally sourced produce from generous Stenhousemuir and Larbert based businesses. This was delivered alongside our regular supply of two hot meals for this week.”

“Additionally, we are really excited to announce that a full three course freshly prepared Christmas Dinner will be delivered to everyone on our list on Christmas Eve. This will of course include turkey with all the trimmings. We’ve only been able to do this thanks to the hard work from our community partners, the KLSB Community Pantry and Forth Valley College who helped to source and prepare the food.

“The festive support measures don’t stop there though; we will deliver a two course New Year’s Day dinner on Hogmanay which will include freshly prepared soup and homemade steak pie made by our own amazing club chef Joe Britcliffe.  Again, this will be in addition to our normal delivery of hot meals and the usual shopping support will remain in place throughout the entire period.

“We hope this enhanced support will spread a little joy after what has been a torrid year so far.  Our teams were out delivering the food hampers this week and I can safely say that this became quite an emotional experience for those involved. Tears were shed by many of those receiving the surprise hampers, and by many of those delivering them too.  We hope this brings some much-needed positivity to round off what has been a pretty awful year.   With a vaccination programme being rolled out across the country, we’re all hoping for a brighter year next year.

“We’ve worked really hard within the club to help and support our community throughout this pandemic, but we simply could not have achieved what we have without the support of staff, our community partners and our many volunteers.  This was real community partnership in action, and together, our Community Help Initiative has delivered over 6,000 meals, 3,000 shopping trips, 11,000 school lunches, with over 25,000 volunteer hours clocked up by our amazing team of helpers.

Notes to Editors

• The Warriors Community Help Initiative has delivered over 25,000 hours of support to vulnerable people in the community in 2020.
• With support from the SPFL Trust Festive Friends programme the club delivered fifty Christmas hampers packed with locally sourced produce from generous Stenhousemuir and Larbert based businesses. The club worked closely with Hogans Fine Foods, Malcolm Allan, Mrs Tillys, Tryst Brewery and ASDA Stenhousemuir to piece together a fantastic hamper.
• The Stenhousemuir FC Community Help Initiative (CHI) continues to support over 90 households every week with shopping trips, befriending calls and homemade meals.
• The Christmas Dinner will be delivered to every single individual on Christmas Eve. The menu will include a scotch broth, turkey dinner with all the trimmings and homemade cheese cake. With thanks to our partners KLSB Community Pantry and Forth Valley College who helped to source and prepare the food.
• The CHI will deliver a New Year’s Day dinner on Hogmanay. Every individual will receive a two course dinner including a homemade steak pie and freshly prepared soup from our CHI chef Joe Britcliffe.
• By the time we welcome in the New Year Stenhousemuir FC and our team will have prepared and delivered over 6000 homemade meals from April to December.

If you know of anyone in the community who may be in need of support with shopping, weekly calls or food provision please get in touch with the club on 01324 466563