Ipswich Town fans completed 300 mile cycle to Germany for food poverty awareness
The money raised will be split between three charities
Last updated 29th Apr 2025
Two Ipswich Town fans have completed their week long bike ride to Dusseldorf in Germany, covering 500km along the way.
James Rose and Elijah Aldridge set off after the Arsenal game on the 20th of April from Portman Road, from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, across the entirety of the Netherlands before following the Rhine River down to Düsseldorf in time for the home game against 1. FC Nürnberg..
We spoke to them before their journey about how they were feeling about the challenge, which can be found here.
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.
"Just under a million people in East Anglia live below the poverty line."
We asked the pair to tell us more about why they took on this challenge and what they're hoping to achieve.
Elijah said: "We're doing this because unfortunately, food poverty isn't unique to Ipswich, it exists all around the world. It exists in pretty much every town, every city, every village, whether it's the UK or the Netherlands or Germany.
"The statistics are almost a complete mirror - just under a million people in East Anglia live below the poverty line. That is actually the same in Dusseldorf.
"So you've got those real clear the parallels between unfortunately, people that are really, really struggling."
They went onto say, that it can no longer be just about money, that money helps but it's merely a "sticking plaster" to an issue that needs addressing at the root cause.
"How we can build a society that doesn't doesn't prioritise profit over people"
Elijah continues.
"We want to talk about the causes of why these people feel like they need help, but they need support.
"So by having those conversations, we can talk about the causes of food poverty, why people are having to go to food banks in the first place through a multitude of factors, whether that's rising energy bills, whether that's insecure work, whether that's having to choose between your your food shop and your child's new school uniform. There's that every single person has a unique and different reason why they might need to use a food bank."
"We owe it to them"
When asking the pair how it went they told us it was a lot of fun but had some challenges along the way too, but what kept them motivated was knowing they were working for a good cause.
James said: "you do go through some moments where you think why am I doing this again? But as we went through the trip, the donations kept rolling in. The generosity of both fan bases and the wider communities around the clubs was really inspiring and I think that that that's helped to spur us on.
"I lost count of the number of people that stopped along the way to to ask more about what we were doing and and wishing us luck."
James also said that the food along the journey was amazing, which definitely helped get them to the finish line, alongside completing it with Elijah, even if they did chose to listen to different things on the way.
He said: "If the other one having a bit of a struggle, the other one would spur them on in. If I see Elijah Racing off ahead, I'd think, well, I'm going to have to put my foot down and crack on."
Elijah told us that they almost became "obsessive" when tracking how much they had raised.
"Pretty much every time we stopped, we'd seen it had gone up by £10, five pound £20 from people in Germany, people in Ipswich, even family and friends. So that was a real motivating factor as well, that we knew that actually, okay, we've just done 5 kilometres here and in that time we've got a donation. So, we owe it to them."
The pair managed to pass their fundraising target, collecting a current total of £5313. (as of the 29th of April 2025).
We asked what this money is going to.
Elijah told us "40% will be going to FIND Ipswich which support those less fortunate in Ipswich, Suffolk and East Anglia
"40% will go to Tafel Düsseldorf which is a large food bank provider in Dusseldorf.
"And then 10% will go to theIpswich Town Club Foundation. Obviously they do incredible work within the community, travelling the playing field for access for sport, for those in marginalised communities and who are under represented within the game. And supporting schools and bringing through those next generation of Ipswich fans and then 10% will be going to ourselves in terms of the Food bank group."