VULNERABLE tenants in Glasgow who are struggling to put food on the table are being helped by a new project.

Glasgow Housing ­Association's Eat Well ­programme is distributing excess supermarket food to tenants stuck in food poverty.

As part of the pilot programme, Scotland's biggest social landlord is also providing debt, budgeting and money advice.

GHA teamed up with charity FareShare Glasgow and The West of Scotland' to help stop supermarket food going to waste.

Bosses are also backing the Evening Times' Food For Thought campaign, which is trying to make foodbanks more coordinated and remove the shame of food poverty.

The Eat Well scheme, which is being piloted in Milton and Cranhill, is helping around 100 tenants get back on their feet.

GHA tenant Iain Dean, 59, has recently found work after 18 months unemployed. He was referred to Eat Well by his Housing Officer while he looked for a new job.

He said: "The changes to the welfare system saw my benefits cut back. You have to learn how to live cheaply and how to make money stretch for food.

"Eat Well gave me advice and food parcels while I looked for work.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of as it helped get me off the breadline."

Supermarket food which is in date but has been wrongly labelled, has a short shelf-life or has been over-ordered is gifted to FareShare.

Olga Clayton, director of Housing and Care at Wheatley Group, GHA's parent company, said: "Rising food and energy prices, as well as the UK Government's welfare reforms, mean more people are struggling to feed themselves or their families and are forced to rely on emergency food handouts.

"People are often embarrassed to ask for support or believe there is a stigma attached to asking for help. Eat Well is discreet and provides a real lifeline for tenants who have nowhere else to turn."

Olga said she was ­inspired to see people in the city being helped by our campaign.

She added: "It's been great to see how the Evening Times' Food for Thought campaign has grown and is already helping people across the city."

Jim Burns, director of o­perations with Move On, which operates FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland, said they were ­delighted to support GHA's programme.

"As one of FareShare Glasgow and the West of Scotland's Community Food Members, GHA's Eat Well programme is able to access fit for purpose surplus food and distribute it to disadvantaged people."

GHA is also backing a community food project run by pupils at All Saints Secondary School in Balornock in Glasgow. Staff work with teachers and pupils to help with funding, storage and distribution of food parcels.

rachel.loxton@ eveningtimes.co.uk