Christmas Dinner for 500 on menu for Hibernian Community Foundation

David Marshall has seen for himself the role that a football club can play in a struggling community. Spending Christmas Day serving dinner to those in need merely underlined the importance of Hibs to people fighting to keep their heads above water.

The veteran goalkeeper, speaking as the Hibernian Community Foundation announced that it would once again serve Christmas dinner to 500 people this year, said he’d loved working with the group since being invited onto the board last year. It has, he admits, been an eye opener.

For more information on this year’s Christmas appeal, including details of how you can help, click here.

“I don't think players understand how important they are to the community and how big a reach they can have,” said the former Scotland No. 1. “Me and Joe Newell were at the Christmas day dinner at Easter Road last year, feeding over 500 people who were really, really struggling.

“I think the five miles around Easter Road is one of the poorest areas in Scotland, so it makes a massive difference. Over the course of the past 12 months I have seen some amazing people doing a helluva lot of good work and it is great to be involved in it.

“The fundraising and auctions will start in the lead up to Christmas and I know that they raised a lot of money last year. They do brilliant work in the local community and help a lot of people who need it for a lot of different reasons. It is massive and I'm really, really happy to be involved in it and I'm sure it will be a success again this year.”