Liam Payne death: How pop star's 'compassion' shone through in Sheffield, as food bank charity pays tribute

The anti-poverty charity Trussell today paid tribute to the former One Direction singer following his tragic death yesterday, Wednesday, October 16.

Liam donated to the charity, then known as the Trussell Trust, during the Covid pandemic in 2020, providing vital support to more than 100 food bank centres in Sheffield, Birmingham, Bristol, Coventry, Nottingham and Stoke-on-Trent.

Trussell’s chief executive, Emma Revie, said: “We are extremely saddened by the news of Liam Payne’s death.

“Over the last four years, Liam was a generous supporter of Trussell and our community of food banks, not only funding the provision of more than 360,000 meals during Covid but also often joining us in calling for the solutions required to end the need for emergency food.

“We greatly appreciate the compassion and kindness he always showed to people facing hunger and hardship. His death is a very tragic loss, and our thoughts are with his loved ones.”

At the time of Liam’s donation, the charity said the money would enable it to launch a crisis fund for food banks to help with recruiting additional staff, hiring delivery vehicles or extra space, and buying food if needed.

When he made the donation, Liam had said: “It’s not right that anyone in our country is unable to afford food. Food banks do incredible work to help the people most in need of support.

“It’s vital that we get support to those people right now, as this crisis unfolds.”

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As well as donating financially, Liam also helped out at his local food bank, where he said it was ‘humbling’ to meet the ‘incredibly passionate’ people helping those in need.

Trussell supports 1,400 food banks across the UK and has a team of 36,000 volunteers.

For more about its work, and to donate, visit: https://www.trussell.org.uk/