Tales from the Food Bank: we're a bit battered but not past it
Despite the warm heart that beats within it's a bit worn - a relic of I would guess the sixties for the most part. In fact, just give it specs and a big nose, and it could be my twin.
Richard Baynes
It's in a musty, tatty church hall. The clients are desperate. The work can be tedious. So why do I look forward to helping at Glasgow North West Foodbank? Well, it's life-affirming, funny, warm, and the girls in the cafe make a cracking cheese toasty.
It works like this: food is collected at collection points and at the hall in Blawarthill near Knightswood. It's sorted, date-checked, stuck on shelves, and often collected immediately for food parcels. No-one gets a parcel without being referred by an approved agency. Clients have an informal interview with a volunteer who can point them to further help and leave with enough tins and packets for three days.
Gill is project manager, Kyle is admin co-ordinator. They carry the can. No other volunteers will be identified here to maintain privacy. Clients - well, they're the important people, but for obvious reasons none is identifiable in any way.
And everyone gets toasties.
Views given here are not those of the food-bank organisers. For more information visit http://glasgownw.foodbank.org.uk/
It's in a musty, tatty church hall. The clients are desperate. The work can be tedious. So why do I look forward to helping at Glasgow North West Foodbank? Well, it's life-affirming, funny, warm, and the girls in the cafe make a cracking cheese toasty.
It works like this: food is collected at collection points and at the hall in Blawarthill near Knightswood. It's sorted, date-checked, stuck on shelves, and often collected immediately for food parcels. No-one gets a parcel without being referred by an approved agency. Clients have an informal interview with a volunteer who can point them to further help and leave with enough tins and packets for three days.
Gill is project manager, Kyle is admin co-ordinator. They carry the can. No other volunteers will be identified here to maintain privacy. Clients - well, they're the important people, but for obvious reasons none is identifiable in any way.
And everyone gets toasties.
Views given here are not those of the food-bank organisers. For more information visit http://glasgownw.foodbank.org.uk/
Despite the warm heart that beats within it's a bit worn - a relic of I would guess the sixties for the most part. In fact, just give it specs and a big nose, and it could be my twin.
This donation is so fantastic it's hard to believe as I pull it out of a carrier bag filled with cans and bottles. It's a beautifully made glass stiletto-heeled shoe, almost full size, with a stoppered top. Inside are rich red preserved chillies. I think have a record for the oddest donation.
Foodstuffs here are classified according to very specific groups: baked beans; spaghetti hoops and other canned pasta in sauce; tinned meat; tinned fish; tinned veg and so on. They are put on the shelves in great big boxes according to this system.
Don't mention sprouts: If I have to do them too it will send me to a vegetable hell.
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