Aston Villa donate packed lunches to homeless charities

The lunches were picked up by representatives from organisations including Outreach Angels, the Pashtun Trust and the Salvation Army

More than 700 packed lunches intended for hungry match-day staff have been donated to homeless charities.

The food was prepared ahead of Aston Villa's clash with Queens Park Rangers which was due to take place at Villa Park on Saturday.

However, the match was cancelled due to the snowy weather.

Following a Twitter appeal, the lunches were picked up by different Birmingham homeless charities.

Guy Rippon, head of fundraising and community partnerships at charity the Aston Villa Foundation, said: "On match days we have anything up to 1,000 packed lunches prepared for staff who are due to work that day.

"On this occasion, we had about 750 lunches, including sandwiches, crisps and pieces of fruit prepared and we didn't want them to go to waste just because the game was cancelled.

"We put an appeal out on social media and were overwhelmed with the response."

The lunches were picked up by representatives from organisations including Outreach Angels, the Pashtun Trust and the Salvation Army. The organisations then shared the food further, donating some to the YMCA.

Mr Rippon added: "That's what the foundation is all about, building the networks to support people in whatever way we can, especially in weather like this."

Michala Roche, one of the founders of the group Outreach Angels, which goes out on the streets of Birmingham every Tuesday to give food to the homeless, said: "We've got a van and car full of 300 fantastic lunch goodie bags which are going to come out with us tomorrow evening.

"The lunches will make such a difference. It's truly heartbreaking out there at the moment.

"A massive thank you to Aston Villa Football Club for supporting us."

The match has been rescheduled for Tuesday 13 March.