Volunteers from Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks are undertaking a near-500km charity cycle ride from Portman Road to the Merkur Spiel-Arena, home of Fortuna Düsseldorf, later this month.
Leaving immediately after the Arsenal game at Portman Road on April 20th, Elijah Aldridge and James Rose will spend a week on their bikes.
They’ll get the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland, then ride across the entirety of the Netherlands before following the Rhine down to Düsseldorf in time for their home game against 1. FC Nürnberg just six days later.
The fan-led group aims to continue its work in breaking the stigma surrounding deprivation and ask Town fans to consider donating to the live GoFundMe. With donations
on matchdays and across local Ipswich food bank FIND down significantly in 2024/25, any support, whether it is one pound or 20, will make a crucial difference.
Whilst collecting for regular partner FIND, this trip is also raising money for Tafel Düsseldorf (a local German food bank) with the Ipswich Town Foundation and Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks also receiving a smaller amount of the proceeds. This reflects the special relationship enjoyed between Ipswich and Fortuna fans, and also shows the power of fans working together across borders to tackle issues bigger than football.
Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks volunteer and cyclist James Rose said: "We all know that hunger doesn’t wear club colours, just as we know that hunger isn’t exclusive to the UK. Over a third of children in Ipswich are living in poverty, with more than a million
people below the poverty line across the East of England.
"In Düsseldorf, one in five children are affected by food poverty - North Rhine-Westphalia, of which Düsseldorf is the capital, has over three million people considered to be in poverty.”
Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks was borne out of the idea that football fans can come together, regardless of club allegiance, to support those less fortunate. It is one of the 40+ teams across the English footballing pyramid that was born from the Fans Supporting Foodbanks initiative that Liverpool and Everton fans launched in 2015.
The national campaign is run under the premise of Hunger Doesn’t Wear Club Colours - it doesn’t have a race or a religion, it doesn’t have a creed, it doesn’t have a gender.
Nationally, the group has raised hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of donations for local causes and hope to eventually have a fan-led organisation at every club in the 92 and beyond.
Over the last three seasons, the Blue Army has come together to donate nearly 175 full crates of donations and have raised over £15,000 for the Ipswich food bank FIND.
The fan-led and independent group Ipswich Town Fans Supporting Foodbanks has continued to work with fans from across the leagues to put supporter rights and ticket pricing at the heart of their work alongside the regular collections, recently joining the club’s inaugural Fan Advisory Board.
Encapsulating the generosity and solidarity of football fans, the cycle to Fortuna Düsseldorf has already attracted an influx of donations, raising more than £3,000 towards the trip’s initial £5,000 target, just four days after the fundraiser’s opening.
Supporters can donate to the trip via the GoFundMe and also opposite Planet Blue on the day of the Arsenal match, where you can also find James and Elijah setting off after the full-time whistle.