Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Ex-Michelin employees among those who are attending foodbanks
FOR MER Michelin worke rs a re a mong thousands across t he c it y turning to foodbanks just to feed their families.
As part of Challenge Poverty Week, the Tele visited the Dundee Foodbank in Stobswell to meet volunteers behind the scenes as well as those struggling to make ends meet who depend on the service.
And one man, who declined to be named, admitted he had been forced to turn to the Trussell Trust for help after being made redundant from the tyre factory.
He said: “I lost my job at Michelin and I ended up desperate.
“It was just awful and I can hardly describe the feeling after being in work for so many years to be let go and not find anything at my age.
“I heard about the foodbank at Stobswell and walked in here and, really, it was a godsend.”
The Michelin factory in Dundee is due to close in 2020, with the l oss of 845 jobs. Hundreds of staff have already left, many taking retirement or finding work elsewhere.
Michelin has offered numerous incentives to help staff find alternative employment, while also working with Dundee City Centre and Scottish Enterprise to turn the Baldovie site into a new innovation centre focusing on sustainable transport and lowcarbon energy.
But it seems some workers have still fallen through the cracks and are now struggling to make ends meet.
Currently, staff at the Stobswell foodbank know of at least t wo former Michelin workers who regularly attend.
Foodbank boss Ken Linton has been helping to feed families for more years than he cares to remember.
He runs four centres in and around the city, including a warehouse, and has 127 volunteers in total.
Ken said: “I’m looking forward to the day I turn out the lights.”
“I think it’s a disgrace that in this day and age there is a need for foodbanks.
“But it is what it is and we get very good support from the local supermarkets which have collections for us.
“Universal Credit, without a doubt, is a big cause of this. The change over hits people hard.
“They cannot expect people to wait for six weeks for money after they were receiving it every fortnight.”
Wedd ing photographer Siobhan Diamond, 29, who volunteers at St John’s Episcopal Church on Albert Street said: “I have been here nearly a year but this is a sticking plaster to the problem and will not fix everyone’s situation.
“It is good that we can help and a lot of people like to talk to me over a cup of tea or coffee when they come in, which is nice.
“Some people have come in and broken down i n tears because of their situation and that is always difficult.
“One man said he was ashamed because he could not feed his children.
“But I told him he was brave and said that it would not be brave to sit at home and starve.”
One client in his 30s at the St John’s foodbank said: “I have had drug issues and been in and out of prison.
“I would shoplift to sell stuff to buy food, but then someone told me about this place.
“I would have ended up selling drugs to survive and this has helped me stay clear of any trouble and get my life back on track.”