£1 million funding boost for action to reduce food poverty
A three-year project to prevent food poverty and reduce the need for food banks has been awarded almost £1 million in lottery funding.
A three-year project to prevent food poverty and reduce the need for food banks has been awarded almost £1 million in lottery funding.
The scheme, A Menu for Change: Cash, Rights, Food, will be launched next year and will see the organisations Oxfam Scotland, Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, Nourish and The Poverty Alliance work in partnership.
Those behind the project - being funded to the tune of £998,882 by the Big Lottery Fund Scotland - said it will seek to cut the need for, and reliance on, emergency food aid.
Working in three local authority areas, it will pilot alternative services and approaches to reduce the number of people who have no option but to turn to food banks''.
It will also promote access to healthy food through community cafes or food cooperatives.
The number of emergency food packages handed out by the Trussell Trust has increased by more than 900% in the three years up to 2015/16, the organisations said. Between April 2015 and March this year, more than 133,000 people were given three days' worth of emergency food.
But they claim the full scale of food insecurity is significantly higher,'' with figures from other emergency food aid providers not collected nationally and a lack of monitoring of those adopting coping strategies like skipping meals.
Jamie Livingstone, head of Oxfam Scotland, said: People across Scotland have responded incredibly, whether by volunteering at a food bank or donating cash and food. However, the truth is that food banks should not need to exist at all - everyone should have enough money to afford food and other essentials.
We know that ending hunger in Scotland by ensuring everyone has enough money for food is a huge challenge. However by harnessing our collective expertise and by working with those responding in communities whilst ensuring people at risk are at the heart of designing solutions, we believe we can minimise the need for emergency food aid in Scotland.''
Maureen McGinn, chair of the Big Lottery Fund Scotland, said: The levels of food poverty and hunger across Scotland's communities should concern us all.
We're delighted to support this innovative project which aims to tackle the causes of food insecurity and improve responses to it.''