Projects to share £900,000 of funding to tackle food poverty
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Twenty-one projects to tackle food poverty will benefit from over £900,000 through a new fund established by the Scottish Government.
The first wave of the Fair Food Transformation Fund will help initiatives across the country that are seeking to reduce reliance on emergency food aid, by establishing more sustainable approaches to ensuring families can access healthy, nutritious food.
It is part of the overarching £1 million a year Fair Food Fund, with this £900,000 funding being allocated across 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Projects supported include schemes to grow fresh produce, cooking classes, community meals, and community cafes, all of which bring people and communities together in a positive social environment while offering support to those in greatest need.
Communities secretary Angela Constance visited St Paul’s Youth Forum in Blackhill, Glasgow, which has received £46,438 for its ‘Beyond Foodbank’ initiative, which is aiming to move away from emergency food provision.
It runs weekly gardening workshops for young people, and community meals where local people can learn how to make an affordable healthy meal from locally grown produce.
Speaking as she visited St Paul’s Youth Forum, Ms Constance said: “I have been very clear that no-one should have to rely on emergency food provision in Scotland, and this money will help to ensure we can create sustainable solutions to food poverty.
“We want to encourage community based initiatives such as St Paul’s where people are supported in a dignified way and where the underlying causes of food poverty can be addressed.
“And we will continue to work closely with individual projects to help them develop and build sustainable solutions to tackle food poverty across Scotland.”
Neil Young, youth team leader from St Paul’s Youth Forum, said: “We’re delighted to receive funding from the Scottish Government’s Fair Food Transformation Fund. This will enable us to help people in food poverty in Blackhill/Provanmill to move beyond the shame and embarrassment that comes with being dependent on Food Banks and instead be assets in their community, contributing alongside others as equals.
“From its conception, this project has been community led, and people are taking pride in seeing what they can produce from cucumbers, to pizza, eggs and honey. The project will endeavour to ensure that no one goes hungry, and the power is shifted from being dependent on others to helping each other to find a community solution to an on-going problem.”
The new Church of Scotland church in Castlemilk will use its £30,000 share to suspend its Food Bank in favour of providing regular community meals.
The church opened its doors this weekend for a special service attended by more than 400 people drawn from throughout the local community who were joined by wellwishers from as far away as Stornoway and St Andrews.
Castlemilk minister Rev Sarah Brown says the new programme of community meals the church will be providing is central to its future mission as a resource for the community in Castlemilk.
Rev Brown said: “We were providing an emergency Food Bank for essential overnight supplies at our old church, but we’ve suspended that because we think helping people build relationships in the community is better than giving handouts. We want to restore people’s dignity and see them leaving full after a good meal, rather than eating until the bag is empty. Thanks to the Scottish Government grant from its Fair Food Transformation Fund we can give the community meals the best chance to succeed over the next 18 months.”
In addition to the projects receiving funding, the Scottish Government is also giving further support to unsuccessful applicants to develop their proposals in order to secure future funding, particularly with a focus on encouraging a move away from emergency food provision towards more sustainable methods.
The projects to receive funding include:
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