Lavazza will mark the 2020 Heads Up FA Cup Final with a donation of 60,260 coffees to Islington Council's food distribution hub.
Having heard that Emirates Stadium has been the temporary home to the local food distribution hub, the club partner was keen to pledge the stadium's full capacity in coffee to help.
This kind donation comes after Lavazza pledged 250,000 coffees to healthcare and public safety workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also builds upon their close relationship with Arsenal in the Community, which has seen them support the club's employability scheme.
Emirates Stadium was established as the central hub to receive food deliveries and arrange onward distribution through weekly deliveries to community food projects during recent weeks.
The Arsenal Foundation has worked to support Islington, Camden and Hackney councils' emergency food responses to COVID-19. To date, over 210,000 meals have been distributed to those most in need.
"We are extremely grateful to Lavazza for this kind donation, which will help us to continue to support our community at this challenging time,” commented Alan Sefton MBE, Head of Arsenal in the Community.
"Islington Council have set up an extremely well-coordinated response and we are pleased to have been able to support this with donations and temporary housing at Emirates Stadium.
"This aligned community response has been the result of a lot of hard work and collaboration between a number of local organisations and is something we look forward to continuing to support."
David Rogers, Managing Director at Lavazza UK Ltd. said: "As a proud official partner of Arsenal FC, Lavazza has been working on adapting its global 'A Cup of Learning' programme to the Arsenal in the Community environment.
"Working with Arsenal, we have been giving young people from Islington the opportunity to take part in learning a whole host of skills to help improve their employability offerings by being trained as professional baristas.
"When the COVID-19 crisis took over and the programme came to a halt, we decided to donate an entire sold-out Emirates Stadium worth of coffee to the local foodbanks to help continue our support within the Islington community.
"With restrictions easing, our 'A Cup of Learning' participants will now be taking an active role in this, by volunteering to pack all the supplements and managing the shipments to the local council. Another fantastic Lavazza-Arsenal team effort, which we couldn't be prouder of."
You too can support The Arsenal Foundation’s community response to COVID-19 by donating here.
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