Inverclyde Foodbank short of supplies after donation slump

Bereft bosses now fear they will not be able to distribute Christmas hampers to bring festive cheer for Inverclyde’s needy this winter.

Inverclyde Foodbank volunteers are also deeply worried that they may be forced to axe certain items from their food parcels if things don’t pick up.

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Floor space at the charity’s West Stewart Street base - which was marked out to store dozens of pallets of food - is currently almost bare. 

As a result the vital foodbank is having to dip into its own reserves to make up the shortfall - but they are still several tonnes of stock light.

Hope Community Church Pastor Ian Stevenson, whose parish runs the foodbank, told the Telegraph the organisation had seen a significant downturn in support over the last two years.

He said: “Covid has had an impact, cost-of-living has had an impact, and we’ve really seen a dramatic change whereby the number of people needing to use the foodbank has gone up 39 percent.

“We had approximately 7,400 food parcels that needed to go out last year, but the real difference comes in the support in terms of the food and donations which we were getting in.

“They’ve dropped by 40 percent, which means there’s almost an 80 percent swing and that’s reflected in our stock.

“We used to have maybe eight pallets of soup and we’re now down to less than one and that’s reflected in all of the key lines we have here.

“We’re now asking people for help and support, especially as we approach the winter season when people will have to choose if it’s heat or eat.

“No-one should ever have to make that choice.”

The pastor says that the current slump is the worst his church has seen in the time it has been running the foodbank, both in terms of donation decrease and demand increase.

He added: “We normally give out somewhere in the region of 600 Christmas hampers, but unfortunately last year we were unable to do that because of the food supply constraints we had.

“Unless things dramatically change this year it’s going to be the same where those people miss out on the potential of a Christmas hamper, which is really a luxury bonus for those who come and use the foodbank.

“If we don’t get the support that we need during this season of transition and change, certain items will start to disappear from the food parcels that people are coming in to ask for.

“The vulnerable people in our community will be suffering, at the end of the day it’s the vulnerable people who’ll be the ones using this and they’ll be the ones who lose out the most.”

“To see us through this particularly difficult period of time we’re going to need a significant increase both in food and in monthly donations to help us.”

While the foodbank has received support from local businesses like Aldi, it has not been enough to completely fill the hole left by the sudden fall in donations.  

Inverclyde Foodbank manager Adam Wines said: “We’ve given out around 40 tonnes of food, we’ve only received about 26 and we’ve had to buy nine tonnes, so there’s still a five-tonne difference.

“You can see with your eyes how much the stock has fallen without even having to check the figures, we’re struggling right now.

“We think this winter coming is going to be quite bad with the cost-of-living crisis and the cost of fuel, now that people are going to be putting the heating back on they’re going to start struggling and they’ll have to rely on us more.

“I believe there’s been an 18 percent increase in new people coming to the foodbank this year.

“We’re just trying to keep ahead of the problem we can see coming up anyway.

“The cost of people’s shopping has gone up and that’s caused an impact on us, plus we have to buy stuff which is going up in price.

“Donations can be dropped off in Tesco or Morrisons or people can come into the foodbank and drop stuff off themselves.”

The items the foodbank are asking for include milk (UHT or powdered), fruit juice (long life carton) tinned tomatoes, tinned vegetables, soup, tinned hot dogs, tinned meatballs, tinned ham, tinned tuna, pasta sauves, tinned fruit, tinned rice pudding, jam, tea bags. instant coffee and biscuits or snack bars.