A line of three men and three women holding a white banner which says "Hunger doesn't wear club colours" and featuring the Ipswich Town logo and a FSF network logo (a red hand holding a green fork). One of the men is holding a blue collecting bucket above the banner. The open rear door of a van is behind them.ITFSF
Martin Heath
BBC News, Suffolk
Ipswich Town fans have finished the season on a high off the pitch with news that they have collected more than £20,000 for foodbanks.
Supporters donated £6,000 this season, to add to the thousands of pounds collected since monthly matchday collections began in 2023.
The collection has been bolstered by donations from away fans.
The organiser of the fundraising group said it protected the local community "from the scourge of food poverty".
In a season which saw the Tractor Boys return to the Championship after a brief glimpse of life in the Premiership, good news has been hard to come by at Portman Road.
But organisers of the foodbank fundraiser are delighted by their total passing the £20k mark.
Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks (ITFSF) began monthly matchday collections in January 2023 for the Suffolk foodbank Families in Need (Find).
They set up collection sites in the Fanzone and opposite Planet Blue, and visits to those sites became a familiar feature of the fans' pre-match routine.
The stands at Portman Road. Fans are sitting in the foreground and standing in the background. The two areas are separated by a green barrier and a red railing. A steward in a yellow hi-vis jacket is standing by the railing. There is a white banner draped over the barrier which says "Hunger doesn't wear club colours".ITFSF
A spokesperson for ITFSF said: "In the face of an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, supporters went above and beyond, filling Find's warehouse with warm clothes and tins of food, and providing vital funds for those less fortunate."
Opposition fans swelled the coffers through whip-rounds on away coaches and carrier bags full of donations.
The group says the local need is increasing, with recent figures showing that Ipswich ranks as one of the worst 50 places for child poverty in the UK.
Ipswich is one of more than 40 teams across England that followed the lead of Liverpool and Everton, who launched Fans Supporting Foodbanks in 2015.
The national campaign uses the slogan "Hunger doesn't wear club colours" and hopes to have fans from all 92 clubs in the top four divisions involved before too long.
A man in a blue jacket and another man in a grey sweatshirt, both on bikes, stationary on grey slabs outside a glass and steel football stadium with the words "Stadion Feyenoord" in white letters on the front.ITFSF
Elijah Aldridge, from ITFSF said: "This year has been incredibly humbling.
"Whether it is little kids giving 50p of their pocket money before a game or almost 200 Ipswich and Fortuna Dusseldorf fans sponsoring our cycle [ride] to Germany, this is fanbase-organised and a community protected from the scourge of food poverty."
Maureen Reynel, founder of Find, said: "Yet another wonderful season of giving by amazing fans who really do care about those in need.
"Their donations enable us to provide quality fresh foods to add to the thousands of food parcels."
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