Perth Foodbank says March this year was its busiest month on record.
The 66 volunteers at Cutlog Vennel, Perth and at a sister centre in Blairgowrie fed 1171 people that month and the number of people provided with food in the financial year 22/23 was up by 2028 referrals – a rise of 30 per cent – to 8823 from the previous year, when there were 6795 people considered to be in need of food parcels.
Recently there has been a successful cross-over with Perth Citizens Advice Bureau (CAB).
CAB offers free, confidential and independent advice on a range of issues, including benefits, housing, debt, energy and more. Funding from Trussell Trust has provided the Foodbank with a dedicated financial inclusion advisor to work with Foodbank clients over three years.
Monique Miller, who holds the post, has been helping clients to maximise their income, manage money and budgets more effectively and ultimately find ways to reduce the need for further Foodbank support.
People have been able to get a benefits check, get help on how to apply for Social Security Scotland benefits, talk about help with cost of living, money guidance and budgeting, especially energy.
Her advisory role has seen Monique share energy efficiency advice, emergency fuel vouchers and energy-saving aids and she has been an access point for basic debt advice or in more complex cases, provided referrals to a specialist debt team.
Monique shared figures with the Foodbank volunteers, explaining how the Financial Inclusion Project and partnership – which began in November 2022 – is going.
Perth and Kinross Foodbank recently celebrated Volunteer Week (June 1-7) by organising two sessions for volunteers.
In one led by Monique, she explained the aim is to prevent people from having to rely on foodbanks as a way of feeding their family.
Monique reported the Financial Inclusion Project has had 198 referrals which came from both Foodbank sites (Perth and Blairgowrie) and from CAB advisors internally.
The result of this access to money advice has been life-changing for clients in many cases.
The Financial Inclusion Project has so far led to a total client financial gain of £176,000, including people accessing £148,500 of previously unclaimed benefits.
Perth Foodbank assistant project coordinator, Lynn-Marie Neil praised volunteer efforts to make many lives a bit easier: “We are truly grateful to all our volunteers.
“We have 66 volunteers in Perth, 20 at our centre in Blairgowrie and seven trustees.
“They all give their time and energy to support our work at our two centres in a variety of ways, including helping in the warehouse, packing food parcels, serving and signposting clients, assisting with supermarket collections, administrative work, and we also have three volunteer drivers.
“The contribution of volunteers is often unseen and unrecognised, but it is vital to the success of our charity. Volunteers are the heart of the foodbank and we could not do our work without them.”
Perth Foodbank told the PA that the average number of people fed each week is 170 people, made up of 80 referrals.
“The amount of food we are purchasing has increased to deal with the 30 per cent rise and we are having to come up with ways to reach out to the public and increase our food donations to keep up with the demand.
“For instance, we have been promoting the Bank the Food App, where people can log in to see what food we are most in need of www.bankthefood.org and we now have an Amazon Wishlist.
“Also, we are hoping that signposting people to CAB will ensure people have had a financial maximisation check to ensure they are receiving the right amount of support to help them get back on their feet.
“As you can see from the information and figures from Perth CAB, this partnership with them is working.”
