A rejuvenated charity tournament is raising money for food banks in Cardiff and beyond through the competitive board game, Blood Bowl
A charity tabletop game tournament has raised over £600 for Welsh food banks four years after the first competition – and organisers expect this will now be an annual event.
FoodBowl 2 is organised by Mohammed Javaid who hopes to run the competition annually in future so it grows larger each year and raises more funds for those in need.
Javaid says the reason he chose to support local food banks is to help alleviate food insecurity exacerbated by the cost-of-living crisis, but he is not afraid to support other causes too.
“If the need for food banks declines then we will still run it as a charity event, but we will probably look at going for a different charity,” he adds.
The Trussell Trust’s statistics state that between 1 April and 30 September this year 1.5 million emergency food parcels were delivered to people in the UK, which is a 16 percent increase on 2022’s figures.
It also states that 320,000 people nationwide turned to food banks for the first time.
The first Foodbowl event took place in 2019, before the pandemic, but only lasted for one day.
On 18 and 19 November 2023 the tournament returned again, held at Firestorm Games, where participants competed at Blood Bowl, a board game that parodies American football, but is set in the fantasy world of Warhammer.
This time around the event matched the donations accrued last time, raising £660 for the food banks, but with half the number of attendees.
Four years ago there were 60 players, but only 28 were involved in November’s two-day event.
Entry into the tournament cost £30 and participants could take part in a raffle on Sunday afternoon.
“The nice thing is that with this community people aren’t fighting for prize money or anything. Yes, there’s bragging rights, but if you ask people to help with charity, it will happen,” Javaid says.
The money raised will be donated to a network of food banks covering Cardiff and other regions around Wales.