Kirriemuir Food Hub and the town’s Rotary Club have joined forces in a key collaboration to help local families.
The former town centre RBS branch – closed since 2015 – has become a food and clothing hub.
It continues the excellent work of the Kirrie Food Hub which was set up in 2020 during the first Covid lockdown.
And it represents a major step forward for the clothing hub which emerged from one Rotarian’s suggestion to give further help to struggling local families.
Those behind it say they hope the single base will go from strength to strength.
Town publican Lindsey Wilson gave over part of her Three Bellies Brae premises for the food hub initiative when it started.
It has diverted tonnes of food from going to waste into the hands of local families.
The project also saw a 24-hour larder and regular pop-up cafe at Three Bellies Brae established.
Food parcels and packed lunches
It gets food from the Co-op, Tesco and Asda, as well as receiving public donations.
And the project is increasingly working with national charity FareShare.
Lindsey expects to see an upturn in demand with the opening of the combined hub.
“We save an average of 185kg of food waste per week – which equates to 444 meals,” she said.
“We currently receive 85-100 visits to the hub each week but anticipate a big increase with the relocation and relaunch.”
The venture also supports Angus Carers, Kirriemuir Youth Project, DD8 Music and the community’s family support team.
Last summer it supplied 1,800 packed lunches to local school children.
Clothing hub ambitions
Kirriemuir Rotary president Philip Ross says there are big hopes for the clothing hub going forward.
“This emerged from an idea from Rotarian Jim Grant a couple of years ago,” he said.
“We were initially given space in the food hub and then were in the Kirrie Connections premises.
“But with the RBS building empty and the food hub changing their model we saw this as the opportunity to get more space and work together.
“It’s a big change for us as a club.
“We have a commitment to fund the rent for a year and we also need a pool of volunteers to man the clothing hub when it is open six days a week.
“We have a great bunch of volunteers who just want to help the community.
“We are very fortunate with donations – some items are brand new with tags still on.”
The clothing hub caters for up to age 18 at the moment, although some adult clothing such as winter jackets have been donated and proved particularly popular.
Philip added: “Our next stage is to equip the building with storage racks for all the donations we receive.
“Long-term we’re looking at funding from areas like the lottery and the ambition would be to have a paid employee to run the clothing hub.
“There are great synergies between the food hub and the clothing hub and we will continue to develop those.
“We see it as a win-win for the community.”
The Bank Street building currently opens from 10am to 2pm, Monday to Saturday.
