Combating food poverty
Funding for food poverty projects
Sixteen projects across Scotland will share £350,000 to help families access fresh and healthy food, Communities Secretary Angela Constance has announced.
It is the second allocation of money from the £1 million Fair Food Fund which is already funding 20 projects.
The money will help foodbanks and community groups to provide people with nutritious food, teach them how to cook fresh meals, strengthen local partnership approaches and reduce reliance on emergency food provision.
Ms Constance made the announcement on a visit to Castlemilk Parish Church in Glasgow which is already seeing the benefits of almost £30,000 from the fund.
Castlemilk Community Meals provides a local response through community meals and social activities twice a month for local people to help address food poverty and alleviate social isolation, allowing them to pay what they can afford by donation or giving of their own time and talent as their method of payment.
Ms Constance said:
“Everybody in Scotland should have access to fresh and healthy food and these projects will help people across the country who are struggling to feed themselves and their families, while reducing the reliance on emergency food provision.
“Our ambition is to help community initiatives to support people in a dignified way and try to address the underlying causes of food poverty, and it’s encouraging to see people and organisations coming together to deliver programmes that reflect this.”