A Dundee foodbank is closing after being told to leave their base at a sheltered housing complex.
The Mill o’ Mains Pavilion group has been running a foodbank for the last 10 years but says it now has to stop as Dundee City Council has served an eviction notice for their base at the Foula Terrace sheltered housing complex.
They have been offered alternative accommodation but volunteers have called this a “non-starter”.
Group member Jim Malone said they were given the notice the day after being recognised at a council civic reception as part of Challenge Poverty Week.
The group currently feeds 20 families twice per week. At the peak of lockdown 40 families were going to them for help.
Jim said: “We are absolutely devastated.
“We don’t understand how we can be congratulated for the work we do one minute and then told we can’t use the premises only the morning after.”
The group began using the sheltered housing centre for their foodbank after the Mill o’ Mains pavilion was destroyed in a fire in 2017.
The group has been offered an alternative base at the new Mill O’ Mains Community Hub – an extension of Mill O Mains Primary School.
But Jim said this will see many people travel through the more affluent Claverhouse and may make them too embarrassed to seek help.
“The group decided this was a definite non -starter,” he said.
“Mill o’ Mains is an area of multi deprivation with many families struggling to afford to live.
Fears Mill o’ Mains foodbank users will be ‘ridiculed and bullied’
“Claverhouse is a much more affluent area and we are concerned people will feel stigmatised going there to use the foodbank.
“Some of the children who go to the primary school from within the heart of Mill o’ Mains would also have to face their classmates while going to the foodbank and there are concerns they would end up being ridiculed and bullied.
“Therefore we feel our only option is to close the foodbank down.”
The foodbank will close in January.
Another group member, Yvonne Mullen, said: “We are desperately sad at the decision to move us out of the sheltered housing complex.
“For the past 10 years, and in particular since lockdown, we have fed dozens of families in the community.
“Over the years that adds up to thousands of people.
“The cost of living crisis is getting worse and we know that many people in our community rely on the foodbank.”
One mum, who asked not to be named, fears her children would be bullied if the foodbank was moved to their school.
She said: “I regularly use the foodbank but I don’t want children my kids go to school with seeing them having to go there.
“There is a still a stigma to using a foodbank and I think my children would be bullied.
“If the foodbank moved I wouldn’t be happy going there.”
Council ‘will listen to concerns’
A council spokesperson said: “Dundee City Council has built a new community wing at Mill of Mains Primary School which any community group can access.
“We will listen to any concerns and continue to offer support to the group to help them identify solutions.”
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