Peeblesshire charity is ‘our true local hero’

​The cost of living crisis and inadequate social security system is pushing more and more Peeblesshire families to crisis point leaving them no choice but to rely on emergency food parcels provided by the Foodbank.

​Opened in 2013 and part of The Trussell Trust, Peeblesshire Foodbank works tirelessly to cover Peebles, Innerleithen, Walkerburn, West Linton and Tweedsmuir.

Agencies including Citizens Advice Bureau, social work and health centres identify people in crisis and refer those in need of help to the Foodbank. Trustees and staff from the local community volunteer to provide the services while supporters, local schools, churches, local businesses and supermarkets provide financial support to meet operational costs.

In my interview with Fiona Dalgleish, the Foodbank’s General Manager, she stated that there are currently 75 active volunteers and due to the generosity and understanding of our local community we never have any problems attracting staff.

Fiona outlined the challenges facing Peebleshire Foodbank. The most critical is that “demand has tripled” since 2020.

The Foodbank is becoming increasingly busier with January 2024 being the busiest month she has ever experienced. At the moment the Foodbank is giving out more food than it takes in from donations, meaning that around 30% of food is required to be bought in – this costs around £1000 per month.

Critically low levels of stock results from an increase in demand, while donations decrease as individuals within the community find it difficult to make their normal contributions.

The charity relies heavily on “a number of wealthy donors” for financial support.

As well as funding, other challenges include the reliance on volunteers and overcoming the stigma of using a food bank. Fiona believes that to help with these challenges the government must increase benefits in line with inflation, increase national minimum wage, bring under 25’s benefits in line with everyone else and “stop cutting support services to the bone.”

Despite these challenges, Peeblesshire Foodbank continues to ensure the shelves never go empty, faithfully fighting to feed people, including children, who are going hungry and skipping meals.

Shocking figures revealed that the charity feeds between 60 and 100 people a week with around one third of these people being children. At the end of 2023, emergency meals were provided for 1740 people including 630 children.

The charity provides food for seven Peebleshire schools who run breakfast clubs, helping ensure children can have the best chance of an effective school day and healthy life. In 2023, 5000 pack lunches were delivered to 150 children over the summer holidays.

As members of the fuel foundation, the Foodbank can top up people’s meters. During 2022, the Government issued energy rebates and people wishing to donate all or some of the £400 to the Foodbank could do so. In 2023, £8000 of fuel voucher top-ups were provided helping people stay warm.

The Classroom Chefs project run by Peebleshire Foodbank and funded by Scottish Borders Council recently gave 392 children over eight primary schools across the region an opportunity to prepare and cook six different substantial meals on a budget.

A community led local development fund has enabled the Foodbank run two projects during 2022 to 2023. The first project is called ‘Financial inclusion and Fresh Food.’

This allowed 719 people in need to receive fresh food vouchers to use in the local bakers, butchers and fishmongers.

Furthermore, 61 Foodbank users attended outreach sessions to learn about budgeting, managing debts and maximising income.

The second project is called “Food Punks Go Low and Slow”, a collaboration between Peeblesshire Foodbank and Tweeddale Youth Action.

The project involved providing energy saving slow cookers to 30 families, whilst Food Punks created online cooking tutorials to create simple to make recipes to fit a food parcel from the Foodbank.

Fiona said that the charity is hoping to develop a project to grow its own food to include in emergent food boxes.

So here we are in the 21st Century and as Fiona Dalgleish states: “Unfortunately although Peebles seems a very affluent place, scratch the surface and you’ll find real poverty.”

We must be continually thankful for the outstanding yet immensely challenging work the Peeblesshire Foodbank does.

They’re fighting through challenges day by day with compassion, dedication and determination helping to reduce hunger, keep people warm in winter, reduce mental illness, and provide a safe place for children and adults to feel welcome and heard. Creating a lifesaving pathway for people in our community. Peebleshire Foodbank is our true local hero.

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