A CHURCH conference on poverty was yesterday warned that Scotland and the rest of the UK were on the way to becoming as reliant on food banks as the USA thanks to Westminster's austerity policies.

The conference organised by the Church of Scotland was held to discuss more sustainable ways to address food poverty in Scotland.

Rachel Gray, the chief executive of The Stop Community Food Centre in Canada, which works to increase access to healthy food, was among the speakers.

She told the Sunday Herald: "Unfortunately there are signs that Scotland and the UK are in the early stages of what Canada and the US went through 30 to 40 years ago - which is collapse of social safety nets and the erroneous notion that somehow a food bank or any kind of charitable emergency food programme could somehow stand in for social policy and the fundamental right to food."

Reverend Sally Foster-Fulton, convener of the Church of Scotland's Church and Society Council, said: "If you talk to most food banks they will say they really are trying to work themselves out of existence as they don't want to be having to respond to this kind of hunger in 21st century Scotland. It is quite appalling."