25/01/2021. London, United Kingdom. Prime Minister Boris Johnson visits The Hive Stadium, London which was turned into a COVID-19 Vaccination Centre. 10 Downing Street. Picture by Pippa Fowles / No 10 Downing Street.
During the pandemic, The Hive Foundation together with Barnet Football Club:
• Opened their doors to the NHS as one of the UK’s inaugural vaccination sites. As the first English football club to host the NHS, specifically NHS Harrow East Primary Care Network, 55,000 vaccinations were successfully administered from The Hive London stadium. A personal visit from the Prime Minister Boris Johnson recognised the key work that was accomplished.
• Utilised their sporting footprint and profile by launching Football Food Aid with the British Red Cross as their international charity partner and Tesco as their food partner. Local food hubs opened at several other National League football clubs. Although just a pilot scheme, they still managed to provide and deliver around 750 food packages to vulnerable members of the community across a two-week period.
• Assisted the NHS Blood Donation team with accommodation for community sessions. Due to the pandemic social distancing measures, the NHS had lost many donation site venues and they had to cut down on the number of beds available, meaning their blood collection numbers were low. They were able to be accommodated at The Hive which helped facilitate their sessions with the local community.
As well as the Football Food Aid project, they extended the community food hub on site and also delivered meals to the most vulnerable members of our community, and the following organisations provided instrumental assistance and support with the delivery of the network:
- NHS Harrow East Primary Care Network
- NHS Blood Donation team
- The British Red Cross
- Tesco
- Dagenham & Redbridge FC
- Aldershot Town FC
One Harrow resident said: “I’m not sure everyone understands what it actually means to be vulnerable when it comes to food. For my family during COVID, my husband was out of work and couldn’t be furloughed and I am a stay-at-home mum with 3 kids. There were times when we didn’t have enough food in the house for the next day and couldn’t afford to just do a weekly shop online. When we received our food package from the football club, we were amazed at everything in there and the amount of items that they gave us. I cried with happiness when it arrived and I went through it. The provisions lasted us quite a few days and also included stuff like shower gel which we weren’t expecting. It was amazing and my whole family were so grateful. Thank you.”
Trustee Father Paul Reece said: “The Hive Foundation strives to work hard for our community across multiple touchpoints and as a Trustee, I am proud of the team’s efforts throughout the pandemic and beyond. We want to position ourselves as a centralized beacon within and for our community and we are increasingly seeing our efforts realized and valued on a day-by-day basis. I wouldn’t like to assume but I would hope that our Club’s reputation aligns well with our community endeavours.”
Daniel Martin, Head of the Hive Foundation said: “It was a genuine honour and privilege to be able to serve our community in such an important and impactful way. Giving of ourselves felt incredible and gave us a true sense of perspective. We are humbled to have made a small yet poignant difference to the lives of many local residents throughout our community.”
