Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks wants the right to food to be law
To raise awareness of the need for foodbanks they're cycling all the way to Germany
Ipswich Town Fans will be cycling all the way to Düsseldorf in Germany after the Arsenal game later this month to raise awareness of food poverty.
Volunteers are undertaking the 500km cycle from Portman Road to the Merkur Spiel-Arena, home of Fortuna Düsseldorf.
Leaving immediately after the Arsenal game at Portman Road on April 20th, Elijah Aldridge and James Rose will spend a week on their bikes, from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, across the entirety of the Netherlands before following the Rhine River down to Düsseldorf in time for their home game against 1. FC Nürnberg, just 6 days later.
The fan-led group aims to continue their work in breaking the stigma surrounding deprivation. Recently, donations on matchdays and across the local Ipswich foodbank FIND have decreased significantly in 2024/25.
Whilst collecting for regular partner FIND, this trip is also raising money for Tafel Düsseldorf (a local German foodbank), with the Ipswich Town Foundation and Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks also receiving a smaller amount of the proceeds. This reflects the relationship enjoyed between Ipswich and Fortuna fans, and also shows the power of fans working together across borders to tackle issues bigger than football.
" Over a third of children in Ipswich are living in poverty"
Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks volunteer and cyclist, James Rose, says "We all know that hunger doesn’t wear club colours, just as we know that hunger isn’t exclusive to the UK.
"Over a third of children in Ipswich are living in poverty, with more than a million people below the poverty line across the East of England.
"In Düsseldorf, one in five children is affected by food poverty - North Rhine-Westphalia, of which Düsseldorf is the capital, has over 3 million people considered to be in poverty”.
We also spoke to Elijah Aldridge who told us food poverty is due to political choices.
"Food poverty isn't just something that happens; bills go up, not because they go up, but because of choices that are made higher up, whether that's in government, whether that's private providers.
"So when bills go up each each part of that just chips away at the money you have every month, food insecurity and food poverty become more and more prevalent.
"We want to continue making that case that these aren't just passive constants that happen, but actually political choices.
"And if we can kind of talk about the reasons why food poverty exists...then hopefully we can kind of begin to put together an alternative."
Government Response
We reached out to the government to see what their response to the subject was, they said:
"The mass dependence on food banks is unacceptable – that’s why we’ve extended the Household Support Fund again to help struggling families with the cost of essentials.
“Alongside this, we’ve increased the National Living Wage, will be uprating benefits and are helping over one million households by introducing a Fair Repayment Rate on Universal Credit deductions.
“And our Child Poverty Taskforce is developing an ambitious strategy to give all children the best start in life.”