Aston Villa donates over 800 packed lunches to homeless after game postponed in wake of coronavirus

Aston Villa Football Club have donated hundreds of pre packed lunches to homeless charities today, after a planned football game had to be postponed in the wake of the coronavirus threat.

The news came only an hour after the club confirmed that tomorrow’s fixture with Chelsea has been postponed in line with the Premier League’s decision to suspend all fixtures until April 4th.

So as not to waste the staff lunches, AVFC offered them to local homeless charities who could make use of them instead.

In a Twitter post, a spokesperson for the club stated:

“850 staff packed lunches and hot food for tomorrow’s postponed game is being donated to support homeless charities.

“If your organisation is interested and able to collect food from Villa Park by 4.30pm today.”

The tweet had been shared over 3,400 times and liked by over 14,500 social media users before it was announced that all of the food being snapped up within an hour.

At 1.19pm this afternoon, AVFC tweeted:

“We are pleased to say that all of the food has now been allocated to a number of homeless charities and housing shelters.

“Thank you Twitter for ensuring this food doesn’t go to waste and it is going to those who will really benefit.”

Their game tomorrow might have been cancelled, but the quick thinking of Aston Villa FC and the amazing support of their fans has left Brummies with a wonderful result nonetheless. Good save!

Football fixtures cancelled

Tomorrow’s Villa game was shelved after a decision to postpone professional football in the UK until April.

The FA, Premier League, EFL and FA Women’s Super League and FA Women’s Championship have collectively agreed to postpone the professional game in England until Friday 3 April at the earliest.

The action – which is expected to be kept under constant review – has been implemented due to the increasing numbers of clubs taking steps to isolate their players and staff because of the Covid-19 virus.

It will also apply to all England team fixtures at every level and all FA competitions including the Emirates FA Cup and the Women’s FA Cup, along with academy and youth-team matches.

According to a statement on the Football Association’s website:

“The decision is being made purely on the number of cases requiring self-isolation and the impact on facilities. Given the steps being taken across clubs, there is no alternative but for today’s action.

“However, all parties are committed at this time to trying to complete this season’s domestic fixture programme and are liaising to establish appropriate options to do so.”

“We will continue to monitor all Government advice with the situation under constant review, with the priority being the health and well-being of all. Further updates will follow in due course.”

Events across Birmingham, the West Midlands and the UK are being cancelled in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

As of Friday, there have been 798 confirmed cases across the UK, which is a rise of 208 on the day before – the largest daily increase to date.  Health officials have said they believe the actual number of people infected could be between 5,000 and 10,000.

The total number of people who have died in the UK as a result of the virus is 10.

If you’re worried about coronavirus symptoms or have related concerns, please visit: https://gov.uk/coronavirus.