9 mins
Pandemic food crisis
Jackie Macadam reports on the impact of the Coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic on foodbanks and charities caring for the homeless across Scotland.
“I’M sorry to take so long to get back to you,” says Joyce Leggate, elder at Torbain Church and Chair of Kirkcaldy Foodbank. “But it’s just been hectic here.”
“Hectic” could be the understatement of the year. Foodbanks are in crisis.
“Normally, we distribute around 1200 food parcels every month in the local area and this service is run by a marvellous team of around 146 dedicated volunteers,” she says.
“This team of volunteers have a variety of roles, including ordering food from supermarkets to the value of around £10,000 a month, placing all the purchased and donated food on to shelves ready for the teams of packers who make up the 1200 food parcels. These parcels are then distributed by another team of experienced, knowledgeable volunteers to the public who present with a range of issues including addiction, mental ill health, loneliness, poverty and debt.
“Following the government advice, at the start of the Coronavirus crisis, telling us all to self-isolate, we lost 70% of our volunteers overnight who, for reasons of age and risk factors made the difficult decision to step away from the foodbank.
“At the same time, we discovered that despite placing large weekly orders with local supermarkets they could not supply us with much of our essential goods that make up a basic food parcel, due to the panic buying of essential items by those who were able to do so.”
The stockpiling has caused incredible problems for Joyce and her team. “My board members and I have spent endless hours trying to source food items by visiting supermarkets and cash and carry outlets trying to buy milk, meat products , tea, coffee and many other items essential to daily living.”
The difficulties getting the basics have been exacerbated by the double-whammy of people prioritising the needs of their own families as well.
“Our donations from the public have reduced although many people are donating money, which is great, but right now, we need people and food!
“We appealed for more volunteers on social media and have had a wonderful response. We do not want to condense all our services into a short period of time in the week as that will aid the transmission of this dreadful disease.
“We need to always remember that we have a duty of care to our volunteers to keep them safe from harm.”
And it’s not just the ‘regulars’ who are coming to the foodbank trying to get parcels.
Joyce explains: “We are being presented with people coming for food who are ignoring all the advice yet are expecting us to be there to help them as they will when they turn to the NHS when they become ill and need urgent medical care.
“But people are desperate and frightened. We’ve never faced this situation before.”
Many times, Joyce falls back on her faith for help.
“I pray that we survive this with a greater sense of humanity towards one another and that this reminds us all that we cannot only think of ourselves. We all live on the beautiful planet and have not been kind to it all for many years. Let’s be kind to ourselves, to others and all that God gave us.”
“On a normal week across the city there are drop-in cafes being run by faith communities, offering free food, support, friendship and advice every day,” says Jacky Close, Development Co-ordinator, Faith in Community, Dundee.
“But the picture is changing rapidly as restrictions are brought into force; cafes can no longer run, the foodbanks are struggling with increasing referrals and decreasing donations, people on low incomes are facing larger heating and food costs and less support as they isolate at home.”
She said: “There are two foodbanks here, one run by a Christian organisation and one run by a Muslim organisation, with a positive partnership approach that responds to the needs of the most vulnerable in our city.
“Yet, the city is still a place of generosity and hope. Faith communities have adapted their cafes to become takeaways, where people can come and pick up a bag of food and take it home, with a cheery wave from the volunteers on the other side of the ‘safe distance’ table. The foodbanks are in discussion about how they can work closer together, as need increases, with ‘Taught
by Muhammad’ continuing their food bag delivery approach,” she says.
“We at Faith in Community are working hard to build conversations between the Council, faith communities and other key third sector organisations so that, as responses are developed specifically to Covid-19, the poorest in our communities are not forgotten.
“In March we hosted a video conference call with senior managers from Dundee City Council and representatives from the main free food providers within the city.
“In the end we value the community, hope, connectedness and life that we see in Dundee.”
“Since launching in 2013, we’ve faced many challenges but none like Covid-19,” says Kyle McCormick, Project Manager of Glasgow NW food bank. “On the one hand, it feels a bit like Christmas – many people are being very generous. Our JustGiving crowdfund raised £4515 in its first seven days, our fastest ever fundraiser. Someone presented us with a cheque for £7000, and people are, where they can, supporting us at our participating stores by donating food.
“But supermarkets have had limited stock so there is a limit on how much people can buy, which also includes then how much they can donate. Normally at this time we see a natural decline in donations following Christmas, so where we would be spending £200 – £500 on line a week to keep our supplies topped up. Restrictions mean our current basket is sitting at only £24.31 as we have reached the maximum number of items we can purchase!
“Many of our volunteers have been with us for many years, some as far back as 2014, but due to their age, their health problems, or those of a loved one, they cannot volunteer at the moment. We value their need to stay at home, and want them to stay safe – we will be glad to welcome them back when this all blows over.
“In the last two weeks we’ve seen a surge in support from people that are not as restricted by their own health or that of a loved one, but have had to stop working because of the virus, and wish to volunteer in their spare time, but will have to go back to their normal work when this blows over. Seeing the ways people have come together like this, during a time when the virus is such a massive impact on everyone’s lives, is really incredible.
Kirkcaldy Foodbank
“Where it is not like Christmas is people panic buying, clearing the shelves, not thinking of others’ needs, giving shop assistants abuse because of lack of supplies, or because the shop assistant won’t let them buy several of the same thing, shouting abuse at our volunteers, saying ‘that’s ridiculous, there is no need for you having all of that’ and continuing it even when told that we were collecting for the foodbank.
“This is a difficult time for us all. We must remember to be kind to each other – and to approach this difficult time with compassion, dignity, and a sense of community.
This will pass. No one knows how long Covid-19 will be here before we can get back to our day to day lives. But at some point, the immediate crisis will pass. Poverty in our communities will not go away just because of a virus – we need your support today and tomorrow.”
It’s not just foodbanks that have been badly hit.
Glasgow City Mission has found themselves living in a new world.
The mission usually delivers a two course meal to up to 100 people each weekday night and about 50 on a Saturday, as well as running women’s brunches, men’s hot filled rolls on a Wednesday and an internationals brunch on a Thursday. They also give out food parcels daily, so the impact of their closure is wide ranging.
Charles Maasz, CEO of GCM explained: “It’s too early to offer an accurate picture of how it is within the sector as each person’s needs will be particular to them and their level of concern will differ also. As soon as we announced we were going to phase close the shelter we moved toward lobbying Scottish Government and the Glasgow Health and Social Care Partnership to bring a more creative attitude toward isolation appropriate accommodation. We are delighted to be able to say that this has happened in Glasgow and is about to be rolled out in Edinburgh also. The result is that almost all persons rough sleeping or who recourse to shelter accommodation should be provided with an appropriate alternative for the duration of the accelerating phase of contagion.
“The focus for our project teams then becomes how to service the particular needs of the community and individuals in this new context.”
The project teams have identified a list of around 600 vulnerable people who will be contacted, most of them regular guests. “We will also consider our capacity to support additional vulnerable individuals who have just received accommodation after presenting as homeless, such as those accessing hotel spaces.”
Charles says they’ve already begun delivering food parcels and are trying to figure out how to ramp that effort up over the coming days.
“Sadly,” he says. “We’ve had to close our building down to the public temporarily. Our Child and Family Centre is also using the phone to reach people and respond to their needs. Some of our staff have even uploaded family activities to platforms like Facebook so that families can do them together at home!
“We are, however, concerned with the impact of isolation on vulnerable people especially in the areas of mental and emotional wellbeing and their willingness to abide by the protocols and public recommendations. There will certainly be implications around the area of availability of income through depleted begging opportunities and other means. There is also likely to be some impact on the ability of addicted persons to secure the income necessary to maintain their habits and the desperation that will arise if these acute needs are not being met.
Seeing the ways people have come together like this, during a time when the virus is such a massive impact on everyone’s lives, is really incredible.
“One of our main concerns though, is those people who do not have any recourse to public funds. The HSCP are unable to house these individuals due to a legal position however we want to see Scottish lawmakers find a way to overrule this position on the basis of public health and the threat of contagion. People in our country who are allowed to slip between the threads in the fabric are at real risk from exploitation, gang influence, and to falling prey to organised crime. We would like to see all persons who have come to Scotland in search of better lives to be shown world leading levels of hospitality and compassion. We all must breathe the same air and all stand in the face of a common enemy so all distinctions on status should (must) be put to one side to achieve the greater good.”
This article appears in the May 2020 Issue of Life and Work
If you would like to view other issues of Life and Work, you can see the full archive
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