THE director of a Canadian programme that is highly critical of food banks as a response to poverty is to speak in Glasgow.
Rachel Gray, chief executive of The Stop Community Food Centre in Canada, will speak at a one-day event about the alternative schemes that have been launched to help avoid food banks being accepted as a normal part of society.
Figures show the number of people using food banks in Scotland increased by 398 per cent between 2012-13 and 2013-14. Glasgow alone is thought to have at least 50.
The Stop Movement, in Toronto, has been fighting hunger and poverty since the late 1970s and has attracted support from celebrity chef Jamie Oliver.
It began life as one of the country’s first foodbanks, which is still running, but is critical of conventional banks, arguing that they are a harmfulresponse to more serious social problems.
The non-profit organisation runs a range of other initiatives in Toronto including intensive community gardens, where people are taught to grow their own vegetables, programmes that teach young mothers about proper nutrition and after-school workshops where teenagers are taught to cook healthy meals.
Ms Gray said: “All our research tells that food banks do not meaningfully change people’s health.
“They don’t address the real problems. It’s a bottomless pit.
“They need to be combined with other community programmes that support people and they need to be part of a movement that calls on governments not to allow an emergency response to become a social policy response.”
The programme will be discussed at a conference organised by the Church of Scotland on Saturday at the Pearce Institute in Govan, which aims to explore food poverty and create a movement that aims to eliminate it.
Dr Linda de Caestecker, director of public health, will be among the other speakers.
Anyone involved in the running of food banks in Glasgow is being encouraged to attend, as are families who have used food banks, whose views are sought.