TOYS   £700

BOOKS £100

ARTS & CRAFTS £100

TEA/COFFEE etc £100

The five day trips for 2025 will be as follows:

4th August - Clyde Valley Farm - £1,729.00

5th August - Blair Drummond Safari Park - £1,942.08

6th August - Kay park - Entry is free of charge

7th August - Heads of Ayr Farm Park - £1,548.00

8th August - M&D's Theme Park - £2656.00

The trip is priced based on 112 kids from P4-P7 from the three schools above and 28 adult volunteers. We require a registration area for each morning and evening for parents to drop and collect children, normally Dumbarton Academy, which was priced at £423.48 in 2024 but this also included the hire for Knoxland Primary on the first day as we had an activity day in the school last year rather than a day trip, but have changed that this year.

We also require buses each day travelling to and from the venues which cost £3,460 for four days in 2024 as we did not require buses on the first day due to the activities being local, so this price will increase in 2025.

Our Insurance to cover this was £223.79 in 2024 which I don't imagine will change much. We ask for a donation of £50.00 per child attending towards the cost.

It is a popular week and we always have a waiting list of kids who would like to attend but are unable to as 140 pax is our max capacity. 

We are asking for £2500 all of which would be spent on materials, building of beds would be carried out by volunteers. The beds would be worked on by people suffering from Alzheimers, they would be led by the person who grows for foodshare at present helped by other plot holders. It is planned that Cornerstone(mental health group) will be on site in the near future and would be more than welcome to participate.

Equipment Costs:

• Cooker Hood Replacement: Our current cooker hood is no longer able to withstand the high temperatures generated during our weekly soup preparation. It has sustained significant damage and requires replacement. We anticipate a cost of £800-£1000 for a suitable replacement.
• Industrial Dishwasher: To efficiently handle the volume of dishes and cutlery used in the soup kitchen we need to replace our existing dishwasher with an industrial model. This upgrade is crucial to maintain hygiene and improve kitchen workflow. The estimated cost for an industrial dishwasher is £1,250.
• Kitchen Utensils: We are planing to invest £200-£250 in essential kitchen utensils. This will include items such as durable pots and pans, a high-quality toaster, and a microwave. These upgrades will enable us to prepare and serve meals more efficiently.

We are applying for funding to help towards our utility costs over the colder months when our bills are at an all time high. We run a food pantry, community cafe, warm hub and laundry service to vulnerable families who are struggling in financial hardship. Our running costs have increased by 30% since last year as a result of a surge in the demand for our services.  an average of 400 families visit us on a monthly basis and it's important that our building is warm, inviting and welcoming especially during the colder months.  our heating costs are averaging £1,200 although we haven't yet had a winter period in our new premises therefore we are very worried about what kind of increase we may see. 

Foodshare is an independent registered charity which was started in March 2013 in order to help people experiencing food poverty. We started off doing emergency food provision covering all of West Dunbartonshire, this was suppoesed to be temporary but since then the need for the service has increased and our numbers for support are rising every year. we provide this support by home delivery as we find this is more dignified for people and we are able to reach more elderly and housebound people. Along with food support, the charity has since developed other much needed projects including a School Uniform Bank where we provide a new school uniform for kids going back to school and also run this throughout the year, Fuel Bank where we offer we offer emergency top ups for pre payment meters, School Holiday Brunch Bags where we provide breakfast and lunches each day the schools are off, A Christmas Toybank and a Babybank. We work closely with other local organisations to reach as many people in need in our community. The high cost of basic necessities is placing significant burden on low income families. Recently we have seen an increase in need amongst low income working families. We would use £500 for food and £2000 towards operating costs including, Rent Unit 21, Utilities, Fuel costs for deliveries.

Our ambition is to grow community participation in club swimming to 200+ which represents 1.3% of West Dunbartonshire’s child population.

This application is to support the training of our parent volunteers. This will lead to a reduction of costs and support growth of club swimming in our community

Increasing participation in club swimming can improve the quality of life of individuals and our community. It 100% promotes social inclusion as it improves health, & raises individual self-esteem and confidence that will generally widen the horizons of West Dunbartonshire’s young people.

In conjunction with other factors, swimming has the potential to contribute positively to society in general, such as reduce the risk of ill-health: physical & mental. The skills obtained by joining our swim club can help develop our young people’s independence and self-sufficiency. Our swim club activities also provide a social space where children can interact. This, in turn, decreases the risk of social isolation. We know that being active brings about positive changes beyond participation and can impact positively on young people in our community - being better connected and socially cohesive. WDASC uses swimming as a tool, to address wider individual and community needs such as social isolation and loneliness. The power of swimming and physical activity has the potential to bring about positive, often interrelated changes and its impact cannot be underestimated within our communities.

We know being active has a positive impact on mental health, including: improving mood, increasing self-esteem, lowers the risk of depression, improves sleep and reduces stress. Swimming has helped to reduce the symptoms of anxiety or depression for 1.4 million adults in Britain. Almost half a million British adults with mental health problems have stated swimming has helped to reduce the number of visits to a medical professional regarding their mental health.

The average training time of our young swimmers is approx. 3 hours of physical activity per week. The health benefits of swimming are ell known. The NHS recommend a minimum of 60 mins vigorous physical activity per week for our young people. Sadly, outside of football, gymnastics & dance schools, there are limitations for children in West Dunbartonshire to participate in such activity. It is our clubs goal to reach to as many of our young people as possible. It’s one of the few activities that attract both boys & girls

Total cost: £2750. Amount applied for is £2,500 with the remainder to be covered by club fund raising.

Tutoring course run by Scottish Swimming is £1,250. 3 x Parents trained to Level 2 accreditation is £500 x 3

Lomond Community Pantry started in October 2024 providing food provision for anyone in need living in the G83 postcode.  Anyone in the community can register as members and receive 10 items of consumables for £3 each week, without having to prove that they are in food poverty, thus reducing the stigma of being in need of welfare support.  We are open on Thursdays from 4pm-8pm, and Fridays 10am-4pm and have 92 members registered,  over 25 volunteers helping with the running of the Pantry.  We have repurposed the old BB hall in Jamestown as the Pantry and are grateful to West Dumbarton Council, Lomond Parish Church, Haldane Tenants and Residents Association and several local companies/groups for support in refurbishing the hall and establishing the food supply. Registration as an SCIO  (053796) was received in November 2024 allowing us to open a charitable bank account on 3rd January 2025, during 2024 our finances were managed as a restricted fund by Lomond Parish Church.  

Our projection for running costs for 2025 is £16000, covering food provision (£9k), electricity (heating), insurance, rental (£5k), sundries (£2k). We will receive a revenue grant of  £3000 from WDC Cost of Living Welfare fund, and food donations from various groups in  the Vale of Leven Area, but we will require additional grant funding to sustain the Pantry, so a contribution of £450 for food provision and £500 towards heating costs would be appreciated.  We need to instal a compliant fire exit which  will cost £630 (hopefully fitted by volunteers).  While the WDC Community Payback team were installing level access to the Pantry, they had to remove the security gates and we need to replace these at a cost of £900 since the old ones were a H&S risk.    The intention is that ownership of the building will be transferred from Lomond Parish Church to Lomond Community Pantry during 2025, and we have permission from the Church to carry out the changes to the fabric of the building.

Such is the demand,  the Trustee Board are reviewing the opening hours to extend coverage to the beginning of the week.  We have made arrangements with local care workers to pick up supplies on behalf of members living  in local sheltered housing, and have provided emergency food supplies for West Dumbarton Woman's refuge. We've also had support from Balloch School Campus and made sure that all schools in G83 postcode know of our existance and can pass information to parents who may be in need.  Over the winter we have been providing a hot drink/ soup and biscuits to members, have a book library, and  a limited  school uniform bank.  

During 2024 our group delivered a key cooking programme enabling 33 community members to come together to learn key skills in cooking based on low budget recipes.  This programme focussed solely on providing skills to women, this year we want to enable the group to encourage both men and women to get involved in our programme.   Being able to deliver the programme to a wider group will enable this programme to reach a wider audience of people.  Having successfully delivered the programme in 2024 enabled the group to reflect on the impact on social isolation; bringing 33 separate people together to form a social learning group, making friends with people that some of the group had never met before.  Friendships quickly formed during the learning process, increasing friendships and relationships with groups of people who may never have met if not for a common goal in learning to cook on a budget.  Following reflections with the group it was decided to offer a more wider menu this time to enable people with a more secluded diet rather than mainstream from last year.  It became apparent to the group that many including some of our members are forced to follow a strict diet, therefore to design and create a menu to accommodate other dietary needs would prove beneficial to a wide community as well as enabling other mainstream eaters to a new programme.  Priority would be given to those who are reliant on strict dietary needs this time as well emabling men to join the women in the learning.  This would be the first time where men would be encouraged to get involved in group activities apart from during school holiday programmes.  There is apprehension on how this might be having men attend but able to welcome some men along to join in the learning.

A further aspect which was developed was that of the family bond, one family had three different generations learning to cook on a budget, enabling each of the members to develop key skiills; having a laugh together deciding to make learning fun for all involved, a further hope for the future programme that other families will get involved in learning key skills.  One member of this family had previously relied on fast foods to feed their family, having learned how to use kitchen equipment safely this enabled them to learn how to prepare fresh ingredients for their young child, who now regularly enjoys fresh vegetables as a snack at school rather than junk food.

Dumbarton West area forms part of West Dunbartonshire. listed third in the social deprivation index comprising of many negative trends such as child poverty and adult poverty trends.  Many people living in this area are reliant on welfare benefits to provide financial assistance to their families.  Many generations do not have the skills and knowledge on how to cook healthy meals.  During COVID 2019 the introduction of readily available mobile apps for ordering fast food and still popular some six years on, making cooking regular meals less appealing to the generations of today, preferring reliance on more conviennce foods to that of healthier options.

Empowering Women primarily aims to reduce mental health in women aged 16+, exploring eating healthy improves mental health in a variety of ways: eating healthy over a long period of time improves on physical wellbeing as well as social wellbeing and emotional wellbeing.  Looking after our body both internal and external not only provides the body with nourishment but also cuts down on the need for medical appointments and reduces long term heath conditions.  People who engage in lifelong learning skills are more likely to live longer.  

Funding will pay for the programme to run for a period of five months during 2025: May, June, August, September, October and November, bringing in season foods to enable the group to explore different recipes in a peer learning style.  Each week the group will consult on which recipes they would like to cook.  The first week will explore the benefits of eating healthy, briefly examine health condtions caused by not eating healthy and familiarise them with the kitchen and the equipment they will be using.  The first week will enable the group to meet each other, discuss future recipes and plan for future sessions between them.  It is hoped each of the members will take a turn on delivering a session to each other.  Any member not comfortable with this task can be supported by other members to deliver the sessions as a couple or as a smaller group of people to ensure no participant is left out from the leadership role.  This role enables participants to get invovled in all aspects of the sessions and to empower them in their learning.

Funding will cover venue let @ a cost of £60 per session - totalling £1260.  The other costs will be met for purchasing food for each session: based on a cost of £5.00 per person; totalling £1.155 for 5 months based on providing good quality ingredients at a local low cost supermarket based in Dumbarton.  Promotion for the programme will be done over social media pages operated by Empowering Women and word of mouth.  

Last year we received funding for concrete raised beds. Following on from this to progress, we need a fresh supply of  2 tons of organic compost and 1 ton of organic Rocket Gro soil improver. We also need to treat the cast iron benches, and the shed. For ongoing harvests and events we need seeds and pots for people to trake away. Outreach visits to take groups into established community gardens to deliver educational workshops, e.g. Bellsmyre & Levengrove Park, along with the transportation of materials to events - promoting food production and empowering residents to grow organically. We also require suitable all-weather clothing and equipment for volunteers and hot drinks and food for them while they attend the garden.

The garden also offers a safe space for residents to access for a hot beverage and something to eat, addressing social isolation and promoting engagment through learning and activity.

Compost 2 x £190 = £380

Soil Improver 1 x £115

Benches and shed treatment - £200

Minibus hire and associated costs - £500

Food hygiene training 2 volunteers - £300

Outdoor stoves, fuel, mugs, folding chairs - 105

Waterproofs and protective clothing for volunteers - £600 

Access to tea, coffee, sandwiches for volunteers thoughout the year - £300

Total - £2500