Our Food For Scotland team has been extremely busy during the winter months and early spring in March providing essential food security services in our service areas – South Lanarkshire and Glasgow. These areas were among the most impacted areas in Scotland by Covid19. They have been under Level 3, Level 4, and full lockdown restrictions longer than any other area in Scotland. Therefore a lot of people have been seriously affected financially and food security has been a big issue for many.
South Lanarkshire Report
In order to help our local communities in South Lanarkshire, at the end of November we have started a hot, nutritious food home deliveries project for elderly, vulnerable, self-isolating individuals/families, and front-line workers. Initially, we covered Lesmahagow, Kirkmuihill, and Coalburn areas in November – and expanded to Lanark, Larkhall, Carluke, Rigside, and Douglas from January, 2021. By the end of March, we distributed almost 3,000 meals to these local communities. We are very grateful for the £1,000 funding received from the South Lanarkshire Council, support from the Million Dollar Vegan initiative, surplus food from Coop Blackwood and Tesco Lesmahagow, Pepe’s Fish & Pizza Bar in Lesmahagow for flour, and individual donors. Also, more than 20 volunteers from the local area in Clydesdale have helped us during this period with driving, leafleting, and social media.
It has been a really wonderful spirit that brought us all closer together in the local communities. Our drivers not only delivered food but also interacted with our service users. A lot of our users are elderly and they have been meeting very few people during this period due to self-isolation. Therefore, they required not only support with hot food, but also with much needed social interaction thus helping to maintain better wellbeing.
Even though COVID-19 cases have significantly decreased in our service area, our deliveries in the Clydesdale area are still growing. We will continue with our hot meals home deliveries for the foreseeable future, as there are still many people who have been financially impacted and food security is still quite an issue here.
Glasgow Report
In order to help Glasgow area we have partnered with three organisations:
1) B.J.O Amara Association that serves Black, Asian, and Ethnic Minority communities in the Glasgow North (Maryhill area)
2) Go Dharmic Glasgow initiative to serve around 100 families with kids in the Govan area from Black, Asian, and Ethnic Minority background
3) Glasgow North Community Food Initiative, who serves vulnerable and elderly (mainly) British background people in Milton area
This project started in mid-January, 2021 and completed by the end of March having distributed a total of 3,185 meals!
Here is a breakdown of our deliveries to our three partners:
- B.J.O. Amara Association: 1645 meals
- Go Dharmic Glasgow: 850 meals
- Glasgow North Community Food Initiative: 690 meals
This project has offered a very valuable contribution during the lockdown by helping to ensure food security in deprived areas of Glasgow in Maryhill, Milton, and Govan areas via our partners.
We are very grateful to our funders Hugh Fraser Foundation and Winter Social Wellbeing Fund by Impact Funding Partners who also granted £3,000 each towards this work.
We will continue our partnership working with B.J.O. Amara Association and GoDharmic in April as the demand is still high.
Altogether, more than 6,000 meals have been cooked and delivered from the end of November, 2020 until the end of March, 2021!
We are very grateful to everyone who has helped make this happen!
We would very much appreciate any donations towards this work via the following link.
