Lanarkshire foodbank appeals after drastic donation drop despite supporting more people than ever

Rutherglen and Cambuslang foodbank's user numbers have increased despite their donations taking a massive hit.

A Lanarkshire foodbank has launched an appeal after it experienced a drastic drop in donations despite now supporting more people than ever before.

Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank has seen an unprecedented increase of 49 per cent in locals using their services whilst also experiencing a 57 per cent drop in donations.

From November 1, 2021, until October 31, 2022, a total of 6188 people were relying on them and there were 56,000 donations.

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However, volunteers now expect the number of users to increase to over 10,000 by the end of this year, with their donations plummeting to under half of what they were.

As a result, the foodbank has had to dip into its funds to support those most in need this festive season, but manager Katharina Nimmo is worried about how sustainable this is. She said: “We are very short in donations at the minute. It is understandable because we recognise that people are feeling the pinch, but it means that we need to spend a lot of money to keep our stock up.

“It is concerning because we have never had to spend this much on food as we have this year.

“Luckily, we did have enough money to support the demand, but it is not sustainable.

“We are worried in the sense that if that demand continues to increase, then we will need donations to continue to support families and individuals that need us most.

“At the moment, it looks like we will go above 10,000 foodbank users, which is a huge increase considering last year we had around 7000.

“Winter is always a difficult time for people, especially with the current energy crisis, so we are expecting numbers to stay high if not go up.”

The foodbank is also noticing more working families relying on them, and she continued: “We are seeing more working families come recently and I don’t think that was a thing we saw around a year ago, if not very little.”

Some of the stock that they are especially low on is UHT milk, canned meat and vegetables, tinned fruit, pasta sauces, tinned custard and rice pudding, and cereal.

As a result, Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank have launched an appeal.

Katharina added: “We have launched our Christmas appeal to ask for people to donate.

“There is usually a spike in donations around Christmas through fundraisers and goodwill, but we are hoping our appeal prompts more people to donate.”

Volunteers are asking for townspeople to donate to their warehouse in the Rutherglen Exchange Shopping Centre – the last unit at the back, behind Dickson Chemist – on either a Monday, Wednesday or Friday between 10am and noon.

The foodbank operates on a voucher referral basis. To receive assistance you will require a voucher issued by a local agency.

Alongside operating out of Unit 37 in the Rutherglen Exchange, they are available at Romanian Pentecostal Church Halls every Friday from 12.30pm to 2.30pm, the Rutherglen Community Baptist Church on Monday and Thursday at the same time, and at Whitlawburn Community Resource Centre on Tuesdays between 5.45pm and 7.45pm.

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