Over the next six weeks, the Red Neighbours team will deliver 150 afternoon tea boxes to its walking football, walking netball and chair-based yoga participants as well as ladies from Larks in partnership with the Marina Dalglish Appeal.
All participants will be invited to join a social virtual call hosted by the club’s chaplain and Red Neighbours team member, Bill Bygroves. Special guests will also join the virtual calls throughout the six weeks, which will include friendly chat, anecdotes and a good singalong to finish.
The afternoon tea treat boxes each contain a range of fresh sandwiches, scones, shortbreads and cakes made from scratch by club chefs at Anfield, as well as tea, milk and sugar to make the perfect brew.
Forbes Duff, Red Neighbours’ senior manager, said: “We are really looking forward to treating some of our participants to afternoon tea and spending time together catching up over the next few weeks. It is more important than ever to stay connected and let people know that they are not alone.
“I hope our version of afternoon tea brightens our participants’ day and puts a smile on their faces and lets them know that we are thinking of them.”
A recent Red Neighbours participant said: “Thank you to Christine, Jen, Bill, Margaret and Forbes and all who work in the background to support us all whilst we are limited to our homes. The afternoon tea was a wonderful opportunity to have a chat, laugh and sing with like-minded neighbours. It was absolutely brilliant and thoroughly enjoyed – can’t thank you all enough.”
Over the past year, Red Neighbours, together with the club’s official charity, LFC Foundation, have responded to the immediate need created by the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing their efforts on three specific areas – social isolation, food poverty and wellbeing.
That decisive action to date has supported the community with a £320,000 donation to help people struggling to feed themselves, 1,400 calls totalling 400 hours of chats to let people know they are not alone, as well as creating online grassroots sports programmes for 7,000 children.