Dundee food charity serving four times more than usual

A Dundee charity's delivered enough food during lockdown to create almost half a million meals for those who are struggling.

FareShare has handed over four times as much as they did this time last year.

The group gives the food to local charities which distributes it to families who are most at risk of going hungry.

David Niccol, Development and volunteer manager at Tayside and Fife, said: "We had to double check and triple check when we looked at the figures we thought 'is this a mistake?' We all knew that demand had surged but when we looked at the figures it was phenomenal.

"In just two months we've surpassed what we'd usually do in a calendar year"

Over the course of the last year the charity redistributed over 518 tonnes of in-date surplus food from the food industry to 151 charities, including domestic school breakfast clubs, food banks and day centres.

However, in the eight weeks following lockdown, demand for its service has soared and the charity has distributed over 200 tonnes of food, as well as signed up an additional 24 frontline charities.

These include 8 COVID response groups in Dundee, as well as local authority food hubs in Angus, Perth, Fife, Clackmannanshire and Kinross.

Chris Doig, Manager at FareShare Tayside and Fife, said: “Because of the lockdown many more families and individuals are finding themselves in really tough circumstances, and demand for our food has skyrocketed.

“We’re incredibly grateful to our team of volunteers who have gone above and beyond to get this food out, and to everyone who has made a donation. These are tough times for everyone and it’s so heartening to see our community pulling together to get food out to the people who need it most during this crisis.”

Last week, the Scottish Government announced an additional £1.6 million funding for the food distribution network.

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