New figures have revealed nine independent food bank venues in Fife have collectively handed out 25,795 three-day emergency food supply packages in just 18 months.
The new data, collected by the Independent Food Aid Network and A Menu for Change, gives a glimpse of the scale of assistance being provided by independently run food banks to people facing hunger in Fife.
The statistics for Fife are part of a national picture which shows that between April 2017 and September 2018, 84 independent food banks across Scotland together distributed 221,977 emergency food packages.
Previously, centralised data for the number of food parcels collectively distributed by independent food banks has not existed.
This new data builds on existing figures provided by the Trussell Trust which, over the same time period, distributed 258,606 food parcels, bringing the known Scottish total to just under half a million.
Sabine Goodwin, co-ordinator of the Independent Food Aid Network, led the research.
She said: “These statistics are deeply troubling, and provide yet more evidence of the growing number of people in Fife and across Scotland who are unable to put food on the table.
“They also demonstrate the enormous collective effort of independent food bank volunteers and staff who are doing all they can to try to prevent people in their communities from facing hunger.
“Of course, we and they all know the long-term solution to hunger isn’t giving out food; it’s raising income.
“People should be helped financially well before they find themselves having to turn to a food bank as a last resort.”
The scale of food bank provision in Scotland is even higher than the combined figures reveal, as a small number of independent food banks operating in Scotland during the research period were unable to contribute data to the Independent Food Aid Network and A Menu for Change’s joint project.
One foodbank in Angus handed out 1,984 parcels in the 18 month period, while another in Perth and Kinross recorded 277. Figures for Dundee were not available.
More than 10% of the nationally recorded total number of parcels were distributed in Fife.
Kirkcaldy Foodbank operates multiple venues where people can access emergency food supplies.
Joyce Leggate, chairwoman of the foodbank, said: “Today’s statistics represent a worrying and growing number of people across Scotland who are struggling to make ends meet.
“Every day in Kirkcaldy, we meet people who are being driven to our doors because of problems with the benefits system.
“A third of the food parcels we give out go to families with children; the innocent victims of a system which is pushing people into debt, despair and poverty.
“We hope that today’s figures shine a light on the previously hidden role independent food banks are playing in picking up the pieces of a failing social safety net, and spur policy makers into taking decisive action to stop food banks like ours from becoming entrenched in Scottish society.”
Research shows that problems with the UK wide benefits system is one of the key drivers of food bank use, but Scottish campaigners from A Menu for Change say that the Scottish Government must urgently use its new social security powers to help prevent people in Scotland from being pushed further into poverty.
Scottish ministers have promised to bring in a new income supplement by 2022 to help Scotland’s poorest families, but campaigners say people facing hardship can’t afford to wait three years for this extra support.
Dr. Mary Anne MacLeod, research and policy officer at A Menu for Change, said: “These figures are truly shameful in rich Scotland and they should make for deeply uncomfortable reading for our political leaders: the problem of rising levels of hunger in Scotland is much worse than previously known.”
