The club’s official global chocolate partner provided 400 Christmas-themed Dairy Milk bars as part of its recent Secret Santa Campaign, which participants from LFC Foundation’s #iWill programme sent on to local care homes and community groups alongside a personalised, hand-drawn Christmas message.
Seven local care homes received the special festive envelopes this week, as well as homeless charity, Whitechapel Centre, and a refuge centre for local women and children.
Alex Jones, LFC Foundation’s social action programme manager, said: “This has been a fantastic opportunity provided by Cadbury which has allowed our young people to bring a little joy to those who need it this Christmas.
“Social isolation is an ongoing issue in our local community – even more so at this time of year – so it was great to engage so many of our participants in this project and link them together with people who may be feeling lonely or isolated over the festive period.
“It has been a wonderful and rewarding experience for all of the children who participated, and we’ve had some really heart-warming feedback from the care homes and community groups we’ve worked with.
“We are very grateful to Cadbury for providing the participants of the #iWill programme with this fantastic opportunity to spread kindness to people during a very challenging Christmas period.”
Among the local care homes to receive the Secret Santa bars were Crompton Court Care Centre in Kirkdale and Roxburgh House Care Home in Bootle.
Deborah O'Callaghan, home manager at Roxburgh House said: “What a lovely idea – it has really made our day.
“It’s nice to know people are still thinking about our residents as we sometimes feel like the forgotten ones in all this, but it has reminded us that we’re not alone.
“Our 39 residents were all so happy to receive the envelopes, it really is a lovely thought, so thank you so much to LFC Foundation and Cadbury.”
Pat Conder, home manager at Crompton Court, added: “We have loved being part of this initiative – our residents and staff have had it hard this year through the pandemic and this has made such a huge impact.”
The Secret Santa activity forms part of LFC’s Operation Christmas Magic, which sees Reds players, partners, staff and community teams come together this Christmas to support their local communities.
As part of Operation Christmas Magic, 1500 food hampers containing Cadbury Secret Santa bars were also sent to families in Liverpool and Knowsley.
For more information on LFC’s Christmas activities, click here. The club is also supporting Radio City Cash for Kids: Mission Christmas fundraiser, which fans can donate to here.