Douglas Samuel awarded MBE in Queen’s Birthday Honours List

Posted on Wednesday, June 1st, 2022

Spartans Manager and Community Football Academy CEO Douglas Samuel has been awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List for services to association football and the community of North Edinburgh.

Douglas has been at the Academy for two decades, driving the Charity forward to being an integral part of the North Edinburgh community.

The Academy, amongst many other projects, provide youth work and homework clubs to young people with hot meals and a weekend breakfast club, ensuring that all were guaranteed a healthy meal that day.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Douglas transformed the Academy into a food distribution hub; distributing over 75,000 packed lunches, over 3,700 ready meals and over 800 weekly food parcels, and everything from clothing to arts and crafts packs.

When free school meals were not available, the local Primary School discreetly identified families for the Academy to provide seven meals per person, per household every weekend to help to feed those local families in most need. A phenomenal 53,000 meals were distributed – an outstanding achievement.

Congratulations, Sammy – we are super proud!