Many families suffering in grip of ‘epidemic of hopelessness’

An “epidemic of hopelessness” has left many Dundonians “broken and oppressed”, according to former Dundee-based charity boss Ewan Gurr, who spent 14 years helping to set up and run foodbanks across Scotland.

The 32-year-old former Harris Academy pupil – who set up Dundee’s first foodbank when he was 19, and recently took voluntary redundancy as Scottish manager of the Trussell Trust – said “one of the most heart-breaking things” for him as a foodbank manager was going into his local school and doing emergency food appeal presentations for children – knowing that many of the “wee faces” looking back at him were children he’d first encountered at Dundee Foodbank.

Ewan puts the rise of foodbank use in Dundee – and elsewhere – down to an “explosion” in food, fuel and housing costs, coinciding with years of stagnating low wages against a backdrop of general industrial decline.

There have also been many recent redundancies in the city. Changes to the social security system have pushed many people “over the edge”, while family breakdown is also high in Dundee.

He looks forward to the arrival of the V&A Museum of Design in Dundee, which will be “great for tourism”, but would like to see the Scottish Government invest more in small business creation and create more opportunities for ordinary working people.

Ewan Gurr.