RFC Executive Director Marius Roevde has brought a lot of good things to our club over the last year, from new Technical Director David Thorburn to our car lottery with Go Auto Columbia Chrysler, to the most extensive community youth goalkeeper training program in BC.

Today we get to announce what may be his biggest win: A new sponsor that will finance a new program that will see RFC giving back to the community in a substantial way.

The logo of Coho Commissary will feature on the back of our new jerseys in 2021/2022 as part of a sponsorship of the club that will allow us to provide FREE SOCCER to families in the Richmond Food Bank program.

Coho is a group that provides commissary kitchens to restaurant startups, allowing several restaurant brands to prep and offer delivery services from a single location, cutting costs and lowering the barriers to entry for startups. The company has kitchens across Vancouver, North Vancouver, Gibsons, and soon Richmond. the company also an ‘artisan market’ grocery service, food trucks, and a cafe, with over 100 local businesses being supported at any one time.

The new Food Bank program started as an extension of earlier work by Roevde to collect food for the Food Bank with RFC volunteers, an effort that literally filled trucks for those in need during Covid restrictions. As Marius began to explore ways to provide more for families struggling financially, he came up with the concept of a low cost soccer program and presented it to several potential corporate sponsors. Coho jumped at the chance to back the program, but insisted it come with no cost to families.

RFC will run the program, Coho will pay for jerseys, coaches, and food for the kids to take home afterward, and we’re working with the city of Richmond to offset field costs.

This sponsorship is the largest ever received by Richmond FC and, along with our Go Auto Columbia Chrysler car lottery, will help us offer more programming for all families going forward.

Coho and Columbia Chrysler join indigenous soccer program Hope and Health on our new jerseys, with Coho taking pride of place on the back of the shirt and the other two groups represented on our sleeves.

That, of course, leaves the front of the shirt vacant. More news on that in the days ahead!