BANK ON US: FILL YOUR BAG

SUZANNE McGlone runs Crookston Community Group, one of Glasgow’s busiest foodbanks. Based in Pollok, it’s one of only a few in the city that opens on demand, sometimes seven days a week.

After years of handing out emergency food rations in one of the city’s most deprived areas, there isn’t much that shocks Suzanne – but the desperation she sees every day is no less upsetting.

She says: “The children are often into the bags and eating as soon as they arrive.

“We had a man in recently who had only eaten a pot noodle and an apple all day. Toilet roll is regarded as a luxury and if we have soap powder people get quite excited.”

No one is turned away from the group. It might be based in the South Side of Glasgow but volunteers have helped people with Lothian and Lanarkshire postcodes and handed out food to a record 127 in one day last month.

Suzanne says she takes regular phone calls from the headteacher of a local school, referring children, not just for food, but for clothing including winter jackets.

Demand for the service is “mental” she says, laying part of the blame on the introduction of Universal Credit, which replaced six benefits with one payment.

Administrative glitches, rent arrears and a 35-day wait for the first payment are said to have heaped more financial pressures on families.

Volunteers will be working every day over the festive period except Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.

She said: “It’s just absolutely chock-a-block.

“On November 20 we had 127 people in one day. That’s the way it’s going.

“Universal Credit, that’s the big one we hear about, and of course we are seeing more of the working poor. It could easily be me turning up at a foodbank. I got an equal pay payout from the council after working for Cordia for 15 years and lost all my benefits.

“We are probably the only foodbank in Glasgow that opens seven days a week, most are only open one day.

“If someone gets in touch with us, we’re open.

“We’re also the only one that delivers if we have the staff available and we’re going to start putting emergency crates in CAB offices.

“It will be absolutely crazy in the run up to Christmas and the ‘holiday hunger’ period.

“Although we’re based in Pollok we see people from all over the city and beyond. We recently had a woman from Airdrie, her husband had left her and she had three kids.

“A member of staff also gave her some fuel for her car. We’ve had people with West Lothian postcodes and headteachers are referring children to us. We don’t just give away food, we give out winter jackets.

“We had a man in recently who told me he was sleeping on the floor. Within three days he had a bed, a couch and a TV, and that was just me putting a message on Facebook.”

Suzanne says the foodbank does sometimes struggle to get enough donations, but benefits from the Fairshare scheme, which distributes good-quality surplus food that would otherwise have gone to waste, sending it to almost 11,000 charity and community groups across the UK.

She says tinned cold meats and pies are of particular need during the winter months.

She said: “It means we can give them a few potatoes and veg and they have a meal. A lot of people don’t have cookers.

“It’s brilliant that the Glasgow Times is doing this.”