A SOUTH Glasgow food bank that had to close its doors after a lack of donations will reopen next Tuesday.

 

Castlemilk Foodbank had to turn people away after running out of food on February 10, and has been closed since.

But with the help of James Dornan, MSP for Glasgow Cathcart, and the Scottish Grocers Federation, they will be able to start giving food parcels out to families next week.

Yvonne Gibson, foodbank coordinator, said: "I was starting to lose a bit of my faith in humanity wondering why people weren't donating.

"I'm not asking for anyone to spend all of their money, people could just buy one thing, one tin, if 50 people did that it would be enough.

Ms Gibson had to turn people away and give others incomplete food parcels as there was nothing else to go around.

She said: "I just felt so bad, I thought we're going to have to close until we get some stock so I started telling people that we wouldn't be open next week.

"I knew we would have no food left and there was no way we were going to have it totally full for the next week, there were quite a few people turned away and I didn't feel good about it.

"What we tried to do, was we didn't give people a full parcel, a dozen or so people didn't get a proper parcel with a meat product, vegetables and potatoes. There were only a few we had to turn away completely."

James Dornan, MSP, put out a plea on social media sites when he heard the foodbank had closed.

He said: "As soon as we heard about it we put out a plea on Facebook, Twitter and on the website for people to donate to the office or community centre to bring up food.

"After that the Reverend Galbraith and I worked together to get a larger delivery ongoing, and thanks to the Scottish Grocers Federation who were very generous, we got it on Friday.

"Some of it was perishable so we managed to get that to another food bank on Friday but the bulk of it is up here today to be handed out to the people of Castlemilk as and when they require it.

"It's approximately a minivan full of food, so it's a substantial amount, and there's also another load in my office which my constituents have very generously donated, that should be coming up later today.

"That should be enough for the food bank to start again."

He is working with Ms Gibson to find a bigger storage space for the foodbank and hopes to set up an online donation website where people can donate money for them to buy food when they run low on stock.

Other foodbanks in Glasgow also offered their help to Castlemilk foodbank and donated some supplies they could spare.

Ms Gibson said theatre companies and churches had also been in touch offering to do collections for them in the future so the foodbank can stay open.

Both Mr Dornan and Ms Gibson were in full support of the Evening Times foodbank campaign to coordinate the foodbanks across the city.

Mr Dornan said: "There was something on the television last week about a place that had a full warehouse of beans but a shortage of everything else. So it'd be better if we were able to spread the load across the city.

"Having said that each of the food banks are dealing with their own community so they have to be able to have that flexibility to do so.

"But it does make perfect sense that any goods that are required across the city can be shared and swapped.

He also reminded people who are thinking about donating to ensure the product has a long shelf life and isn't perishable.