Thursday 1st October 2026
The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust (AST) and Hard Rock Cafe worked together this summer to provide food for people experiencing homelessness in central London, building on a series of fundraising efforts by the AST for charities and its local community.
The initiative arose out of an AST fundraiser event held at Hard Rock Cafe earlier this year. The final tally from the night saw the Trust make contributions of £10,000 to the Willow Foundation and £5,000 to the Arsenal Foundation.
The staging requirements for the event saw a scenario in which up to £5,000 worth of food could have been wasted. AST Board members then contacted the Hard Rock and asked if instead the food ordered could be put to good use. The Hard Rock Café subsequently prepared this food on four consecutive Saturdays over the summer and arranged for it to be donated to the refuge network in Charing Cross to provide meals for people experiencing homelessness.
“Our event was a great success but we were concerned a lot of food was going to go to waste. It was therefore great to be able to arrange to put this to good use and support the community” said a spokesperson for the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust.
The AST has also recently donated £10,000 to a fund that will distribute Arsenal tickets to people in the local community who might otherwise be unable to afford or attend a match.
Together, these efforts show that football is about more than 22 people on a pitch. The Arsenal community through the support of all our members is using its shared passion for the game to support people both at the stadium and in the community it serves.
