Report: foodbanks could become a permanent feature in Scotland

New research by the Poverty Alliance identified 167 different organisations providing emergency food to struggling Scots, adding that many of these organisations also provided other forms of help.

While its services such as soup kitchens for the homeless have been "a long established feature of social support in Scotland", the report highlighted the rising number of food banks being set up across the country.

"It is the recent growth in food banks and the extension of emergency food aid to a wide range of social security recipients and people in work which is of acute concern," it stated.

It claimed there is now a "real danger that emergency food aid provision may become a permanent feature of the welfare landscape in Scotland".

Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance, said: "Few would contend that the growth in food banks and other forms of emergency food aid is an acceptable situation in modern Scotland. It is also clear that it is not possible to simply turn away from those who are in such great need."

Food banks also provide emotional support to vulnerable people, the report found, while some have specialist advisers on-site, with others referring people on to organisations that can help with financial and welfare issues.

Mr Kelly said the report highlighted the "vital work that volunteers and staff are doing right across Scotland" at food banks and other emergency food services.

He added: "This extends well beyond the food that people so urgently need to include emotional and practical support to help people move to longer terms solutions."

But he also stressed the need to "look at how we move beyond crisis responses to poverty that food banks and others represent".

The report argues that a "preventative approach to food poverty which focuses on decent incomes, access to affordable, nutritious food, and which prioritises the most vulnerable, is required".

While it said action to increase benefits, end the sanctions regime and tackle the problem of in-work poverty was needed, it added in the short term it is "important to focus on how emergency food aid can be best used to connect clients to more mainstream forms of support".

It also stressed the need to "build resistance to the further entrenchment" of food banks and other similar projects as part of the welfare state in Scotland.

It called on the the Scottish Government to "take a strong policy position against the further institutionalisation of emergency food aid within mainstream welfare provision and send clear messages to the UK Government that revision of their current austerity and welfare reform agenda is required in order to reverse this trend".

Any state investment in emergency food aid must be focused on "ensuring clients do not become dependent on this service, but have improved access to mainstream sources of support", the report added.

Ministers have also been urged to support the provision of specialist advisers, such as Citizens Advice staff or welfare rights advisers, in emergency food aid services.

Meanwhile, councils have been urged to make sure all organisations providing emergency food aid have information about how the Scottish Welfare Fund, which can make cash awards to those in need, operates in their area.

Social Justice Secretary Alex Neil, who launched the new report on a visit to a food bank in Airdrie, said: "It is unacceptable that so many have had to resort to food banks.

"Emergency food aid is not a sustainable response to the issue of food poverty and its underlying drivers and it cannot become an established feature of the welfare system in Scotland."

Report author Mary Anne MacLeod stated: "It is crucial to understand that we are not just dealing with a problem simply of food, but of poverty and inequality.

"While committed to helping those in need, food bank staff and volunteers involved in this study felt very strongly that they should not be expected to fill a gap in an eroded safety net.

"It must be acknowledged that the solutions to food poverty do not lie with food bank volunteers, but with a preventative approach focused on decent incomes and equitable access to affordable, nutritious food."

The Trussell Trust, which runs a network of food banks across the UK, has reported a massive increase in the number of Scots needing help.

The total shot up from 5,726 in 2011-12 to 71,428 - including more than 22,000 children - in 2013-14.

Mr Neil said it was "very difficult to put a true figure on the number of food banks in Scotland", adding that such services were "popping up all over the place".

He also warned the problem of food poverty could get worse, if further cuts are made.

The Social Justice Secretary said: "Although we have now got a large number of food banks we still don't have enough of them given the level of demand, because food poverty is very prevalent in Scotland and indeed the UK.

"That is clear from this report and the problem is getting worse. It's very worrying indeed.

"It's a sad reflection on the state of our benefits system in 2015 that so many people are relying on food banks to feed their families.

"Both the major parties have said if they get elected they're going to make further huge cuts to welfare benefits, and the impact of the benefit cuts we have had is one of the main reasons why we have got so much food poverty in Scotland and in the rest of the UK."

He warned: "If they make even deeper cuts they will leave families starving and the only way these families will be able to get the food they need is by going to a food bank.

"I am very worried about the future, that's why I'm so keen for the Scottish Parliament to get control over all welfare benefits, because I believe if we controlled all taxation and all welfare benefits we actually could get ourselves into a position where we don't need food banks, because we could make sure the people who are in severe poverty are properly looked after."

The Scottish Government has awarded almost £29,000 to the Poverty Alliance to help with its work with groups providing emergency food.

Mr Neil also pledged ministers would consider all the recommendations in the report and "will do what we can to implement them as quickly as possible".