Foodbank in crisis

The Covid-19 crisis has left Perth and Kinross Foodbank facing an uncertain future, while counterparts in Blairgowrie have been forced to close.

The Perth pool of volunteers is drying up, supply chains have been severed and around 100 regular clients face a future clouded in uncertainty.

“We are desperately trying to keep going but there are simply no guarantees,” said project coordinator Eleanor Kelleher.

“We just don’t know how things are going to pan out for the mix of families, couples and people on their own that we usually support.”

She pleaded with members of the public to steer clear of the Cutlog Vennel base.

“We have been forced to reduce the days when clients can arrange to collect their parcels but we really don’t know what our service will consist of hour-byhour.

“We don’t know if we will even get to the end of the week.

“On one hand we have to be guided by government advice and what we will be allowed to do, but we also face huge problems with our support network. It is all very fragile.”

She said: “Right from the start of this crisis we have been trying to carry on the service to clients who rely on us.

“But I can’t believe how much it has changed in the past seven days. We only have two part-time members of staff. We both have children and one of us has a husband in the NHS.

“A lot of our volunteers are in the 70-plus age group and have to selfisolate.

“We have others with health conditions and carers and nurses who are in the frontline now. We have lost 80% of our team. Our service is shrinking and it is shrinking every day.

“Those of us who are left are trying to man the phones and emails when we are in but it is a real struggle.”

She has urge people to donate food at supermarket collection points.

Long-time Perth Foodbank chairman Michael Archibald admitted they were facing an unprecedented crisis.

“These are difficult times. We are in a very delicate position.”