A 30-YEAR-OLD woman who lives in Castlemilk, Glasgow, with her mother, partner and baby daughter told us of her use of a food bank.

She said: “My partner lost his job in 2014, and my hours were cut back. But, because I was working 20 hours a week, he couldn’t claim benefits. And it was only minimum wage at the time. If it wasn’t for the food bank we would have had to turn to payday loans.

“We had spoken to the adviser that works in the housing association to see if there was any benefits my partner could get, or anything we could do. That’s when we were advised the only thing we could do is use the food bank.

“So I went down to the Law Centre with my partner. We filled in all the paperwork for it and they gave us tokens. I thought it was mainly for people who were struggling and it’s one of these things where you know of it, you hear about it, but it doesn’t really affect you.

“It’s not one of these things you would ever think you would have to use.

“I think it really, really badly affected me at the time psychologically and emotionally.

“We chose a food bank that was slightly further away, [because] no-one knew you there. I wasn’t quite ready to let anyone know that we had to use a food bank. I felt awful because I kept thinking there are people out there a lot worse off ... that need this more than me.

“I’m lucky because I do a lot of cooking. The only thing that I could think of from a kind of dietary point of view, they didn’t provide much protein.

It was mostly rices and pastas, which I suppose is great.

“The volunteers were a little bit more understanding when I burst out crying the first time I went in. They made sure I was okay.

“I have become more aware of the need for food banks. So we quite often donate now.”