Friday Oct 19th saw Dundee FC play an SPL game on a Friday night for the first time; it also saw the continuation of the Community Initiative with the arrival of our latest charity, Food Train.
Food Train is a charity which has recently expanded into the Dundee area, and provides assistance for elderly people who may have mobility problems with the collection of groceries. Although only started up in Dundee in January, Food Train now has over 100 clients.
Dundee FC Supporters’ Society were delighted to welcome another charity to Dens, and spoke with Grant Simmons, the regional manager of Food Train to see how the visit went. Grant told us how the publicity surrounding last year’s Community Initiative encouraged Food Train to get in touch. "I saw the publicity about Dundee FC getting all the charities they have hosted together for the last game of last season and wondered if we could be included in the new season. So my initial contact was with Jacqui Robertson, and it developed from there."
For Food Train, this was a chance to publicise the work they do, and get to meet the Dundee Supporters, "Food Train is a fairly new charity in Dundee and we are always trying to raise awareness of who we are and what we do. This was what we were able to do thanks to the Dundee FC Supporters' Society. We were able to hand out leaflets about the service, talk to some of the supporters and get more people talking about Food Train and how they can help. The Dundee supporters were fantastic, a large number of them came over to see who we were and find out what we were doing."
While raising the profile of Food Train was the main objective of the evening for Grant and his team, the signed merchandise received at half time will hopefully help further as the Food Train continue to grow; "As a charity we are always looking to raise money. The signed ball and shirt will be a brilliant star prize in a raffle, we are planning to have a quiz night soon and the intention is to raffle the merchandise at that event. We at Food Train would like to thank everyone at Dundee Football Club for hosting us on the night. A special thank you must go to Jacqui Robertson and Grant Cook for their excellent welcome and for looking after us. We were made very welcome and looked after and catered for which added to a special evening, thank you."
Community Director Jacqui Robertson was delighted to welcome Food Train to Dens Park on behalf of the Society, and the Dundee supporters who have given this initiative fantastic support from its inception. "One of the nicest things to come out of the community initiatives is the amount of Dundee fans involved with these charities and Grant Simmons is no stranger to our club. Another lovely part of their visit was Pat Liney being the ultimate gentleman as ever and coming to meet with Grant and the team to say hello and find out a bit more. In fact, Pat is now going to spend a bit of time with the charity in the near future. We are very lucky to have such big hearted fans and staff."
Dundee FC Supporters’ Society are delighted to have met Grant and his team from Food Train, and would like to wish them well as the charity grows in and around Dundee. The Society is also keen to thank Jacqui and her team for all the sterling work done so far this season, the Community Initiative first and foremost helps out each charity that visits, but also has the added benefit of raising the profile of Dundee FC in the wider community and beyond, and this is something everyone on the Society Board is keen to see continue.