Sunderland's Foundation of Light aiming to raise £30,000 for families in poverty

Sunderland AFC's community arm, The Foundation of Light, has taken advantage of Saturday's match against Gillingham to raise money for North East families living in poverty.

As part of its Give a Quid campaign, the Foundation is aiming to raise £30,000 this weekend, which will help fund projects to help deal with poverty.

Managing Director of the Foundation, Jamie Wright, said: "It’s going to be used for our programmes that help deal with poverty in the community, so there’s a lot of poverty in the Sunderland area and I think, coming out of the pandemic we’re seeing that, so yeh, we want to help our community as best as we can."

His colleague, Jack Pringle, added that the cost of living crisis makes this year's fundraiser even more important.

He said: "With the cost of living that’s going up it’s important we do all we can to try and help people. It’s just people in general, people who are looking for something to do, people who access food banks, we offer things like that. We also offer courses that can help support people and give them advice."

Sunderland fans who were both collecting and donating money for the campaign, said they knew of people in the region who are struggling financially.

One woman said: "I think everybody knows someone who is struggling, whether it be the increase in the electricity, whether it be them having to access food banks, what the beacon is doing is brilliant to support them."

Another said: "We have a lot of people who are struggling, so people who are on normal wages are struggling, and people on higher wages are struggling, so I think anything is going to help those who can’t afford it, so yeh, I think it’s really important that we do it."

And one fan said: "Especially in the economic situation everybody is in, the foundation are doing a fantastic job."