Chelsea will provide 78,000 meals to the NHS and charities which support the elderly and vulnerable groups.

The free meals are being prepared by the club’s catering partner, Levy, and will be distributed ever day for six weeks, starting this week.

It aims to help NHS staff working long hours and will be provided to Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust across their five local hospitals, including St Mary’s Hospital in Paddington, Charing Cross Hospital in Fulham and Hammersmith Hospital.

Chelsea Chairman Bruce Buck said: “We are and have always been committed to supporting our communities, especially the vulnerable, and at this time we recognise this is more important than ever.

‘Our owner, Roman Abramovich, has been instrumental in challenging us to find ways to support those in need and after we successfully launched the Refuge campaign and made the Millennium Hotel at Stamford Bridge available to the NHS, this was the priority so I am pleased to see it begin.’

The club will also be working with Age UK, The Smile Brigade, Unity Works, and other housing units in London to help the elderly and vulnerable.

Professor Julian Redhead, medical director at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust said: ‘All our staff are working incredibly hard to support our patients and their loved ones during this very challenging time and it’s so important that staff can access healthy, nutritious food.

‘We’re hugely grateful for this generous new initiative from Chelsea Football Club, which helps us to support the health and wellbeing of our incredible people.’

The club has already made their Millennium Hotel at Stamford Bridge available to medics in north-west London.

Jess Millwood, CEO of Age UK Kensington and Chelsea, added: ‘Covid-19 is frightening and challenging, but the community response has been heart-warming. We are really grateful to Chelsea FC who have stepped up to help out so generously.’