Moss Side Fire Station Boxing Club, supported by the Access Sport Angus Irvine Playing Fields Fund (AIPFF), has teamed up with the Maverick Stars Trust and Manchester Mind to deliver emergency food packages to local children and families.



Mark Hardie, CEO of Access Sport said:

We have worked with the Moss Side Fire Station Boxing Club for a number of years and we were pleased to provide funding via the AIPFF and work in partnership with Maverick Stars, Manchester Mind and the club to provide this much-needed support.

During the Covid crisis Access Sport is supporting clubs so they can continue to serve at risk, vulnerable and disabled young people. We are seeing first-hand that inspirational sports volunteers are more important than ever – both for physical and mental wellbeing – and in the way that they foster togetherness’ and community.

Initially funded by the Maverick Stars Trust, Access Sport working with the AIPFF has been able to provide additional funding to help reach more children left vulnerable by the sudden closure of schools. The collaboration is aiming to deliver daily food packages to 50 school aged children during the month of April.

Charlotte Galley, Founder of Maverick Stars said:

We started (in Moss Side) at 25 a day now 50, it’s frightening how many people are desperate for food.

Nationally, Manchester is ranked in the top 5 most deprived Local Authority areas in England, with a large proportion of children in receipt of free school meals compared to the national average. In March 2019, a food poverty action plan was launched in recognition of the 600,000 people (200,000 children) living in poverty. However the current outbreak means that many local food banks are under increased pressure with limited resources to provide for those who rely heavily on their services.

Access Sport’s support of the club has included delivering our young leader training programme to ten members of the boxing club including Hamden our young leader of the year 2019, enabling the club to deliver outreach sessions to local Pupil Referral Units and SEN schools, upskilling club volunteers with coaching qualifications, purchasing equipment and providing funding.

The boxing club has been working to help young people and the community since 2008, watch the film below to find out more:

To find out more about the Angus Irvine Playing Fields Fund (AIPFF) or donate to the fund you can visit the home page here