A Glasgow soup kitchen has issued a plea for local businesses to donate hot food to their charity, as they admitted families were coming from as far away as Fife to get fed.
Last Friday, the Homeless Project Scotland (HPS), which is based on Argyle Street under Central Bridge, served more than 200 hot meals to the most vulnerable residents, including children between the ages of one and six.
Among those in the queue was a mum with four young children who had travelled from Fife to the city centre to get a sausage hot pot.
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The organisation is now calling on local businesses to donate what they can to the cause on a regular basis.
Chairman of the HPS, Colin McInnes said: “It was absolutely harrowing to be honest with you. There was a lady there with a pram with two seats and four children with a blanket over them who had travelled from Fife to come and get some food in Glasgow.
“We had to provide the woman some clothing for her kids as well as more blankets to wrap them up.
“The queue is getting longer every day and at the moment we are pushing 1500 hot meals a day, seven days a week. Friday night was probably one of the worst nights that we had with children around one year old to six years of age attending our soup kitchen.
“Some of the parents said to us that they had brought their children because they had wanted a sausage hot pot. It is so sad that in 2023 someone has to travel across the country just to get their kids some sausage and gravy.
“This situation is also really upsetting for our volunteers. Some of them are crying, they are upset, they want to take the families home and some aren’t coming back as they can’t cope with the distress of seeing children standing in the queue hungry. Our charity is basically keeping people alive.”
The HPS serves food under Central Bridge from 8pm until at least 10pm every night. In the last three weeks volunteers have remained until around 11pm so they can serve an extra 140 people turning up for food.
They have been serving 340 people on average a day. The charity is now urging local businesses to donate food to the cause to help people in need of a hot meal.
Mr McInnes continued: “We need more restaurants to come forward and provide us buckets of food, whether it's a curry sauce or a dish of some kind.
“We are appealing to companies to donate food which will allow us to continue our service. We are looking for regular weekly donations, not just a one off pile of bread, that doesn't work.
“Good food will help people in these situations feel more humane.”
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