STAFF at an Oswestry football club have been doing their bit for the town after donating items to the local foodbank.

FC Oswestry Town representatives, including manager Nathan Leonard, visited Oswestry and Borders Foodbank in Beatrice Street to make a donation of food, drink and toiletries.

The idea came from Nathan, who took over at the club in November 2019, who hopes the donation from the club can have a positive impact in Oswestry.

He said: "The work they do at places like this is amazing.

"To be honest, it opened my eyes when I first came in here – I was taken aback by the number of people here waiting to collect food.

"You hear about it in cities but not so much places like here.

"Oswestry is a nice town, but there is still a lot of people who can't afford to feed their families all week.

"It's important we do stuff like this and hopefully it can encourage more people to help out."

Nathan also emphasised how important he believes it is for the club to help out in the community when they are able to.

"When I took over as manager here, I wanted to use the opportunity to help in the community and the town as much as I can," he explained.

"It's great to be a football manager and I do want to help the team to improve, but I also want to help the club grow off the pitch as well as on it.

"I'm from Oswestry and I've lived here all my life.

"I think doing stuff like this does help, and hopefully people can see the good things we are able to do in the community."

He continued to say the club is looking at making another large donation this year.

Nathan added: "We're hoping to give another donation towards the end of the football season.

"The foodbank tends to need more food before the school summer holidays, so we're hoping to help before then."

Manager at Oswestry and Borders Foodbank, Liz Jermy, expressed her gratitude for the donation.

She said: "A massive thank you to FC Oswestry Town for their donation.

"What's fantastic is that Nathan contacted us before Christmas and asked what we would need, but we asked if it would be possible for them to make a donation after Christmas.

"Their donation is fantastic because it will add to the food we have here already.

"We give away 26,000kg of food each year here, so every donation that comes in makes a difference in the community."