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.

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.  

Our project aims to provide additional support to individuals and families in the local community by offering an additional breakfast session and afternoon soup and toasty session.  The initiative is designed to address food and fuel insecurity while also promoting mental wellbeing and offering a space for people to connect with others in their community.  

Key Objectives 

1 - provide access to free meals - additional breakfast session and a new afternoon session providing soup and toasties, available to all within the community

2 - reducing social isolation - encouraging social interaction and reducing isolation by giving people space to connect with others 

3 - combat food and fuel insecurity - ensuring that no one goes without food and the warmth they need throughout the day

4 - supporting wellbeing - offering a safe welcoming environment for individuals and families to socialise and feel supported 

5 - collaborate with local services - partnering with other local organisations to offer additional support, resources and information on services that could benefit individuals and families 

Cost Breakdown

Food - £500

Sessional Staff/Volunteer Costs (including training) - £1600

Catering Equipment - £400

Our funds are depleting rapidly due the current and predicted raise of utility costs and this has affected and will continue to affect the use of the Village Community Hall for our villagers as a meeting place that provides support, fun, health and wellbeing and reduce loneliness and isolation for villagers of all ages in our community and surrounding area.

The 2025 plan until June includes regular village and community meetings; Bingo night; Ceilidh night; Quiz night; Learn and Grow sessions; Drop In and Chat Group; Easter Week activities and events; a proposed Walking Group and Ukulele Group.

We have also made contact with ‘Men Matter’ as we have had interest in starting some form of Mens’ Group looking at such things as cycling and recycling, walking football/exercise in the new MUGA; Pat Testing; and enhancing our park facilities identifying skills that that can be shared to help in enhancement our village environment.

Working with WDC Greenspace we were delighted to secure a WDC Large Grant Funding and Landfill Tax Funding for the installation of a new MUGA in the King George V Field in Milton. When completed it is envisaged that our Village Community Hall will be used even more and will encourage all ages to be more active having a positive impact on overall health.

We worked with Business Energy Scotland for 18 months concluding in a large grant application for conversion of the Village Community Hall to greener energy. In August 2024 this was deemed as unsuccessful. In the interim we have applied for other grants towards the 25% contribution required from our group, for a planning application and other small costs and were successfully awarded these grants which we will currently hold in our bank account until we are successful in securing the large amount of funds required to complete this project. 

To enable all of this to happen we are still actively working on this project in order to achieve meeting our greener energy targets and cutting our current utility costs by 75% as advised in our Business Energy Report to enable all this to happen.

We are currently in need of a new fridge/freezer, which due to inefficiency, requires replacement and should help towards reducing some of our overall running costs. 

Purchase of new fridge/freezer at a cost of £300.

Contribution towards food costs £500

Contribution to utility costs £1700 - Hopefully covering a six month period

In order for us to continue functioning in the way we have over the last two and half years as a group, we request the assistance of a total grant of £2500 in order to be able to sustain and utilise our community resources.

Action Old Kilpatrick has worked in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Councils Greenspace Team for a number of years which has included the use of a large greenhouse situated in Old Dalnottar Cemetary. This has allowed for the group to grow a variety of plants from seed and distribute throughout the flower beds in the village. We have successfully grown vegetables for the community including a herb bed.

However, the greenhouse has not been utilised to its full potential due to the demands required of water and volunteer hours.

The installation of a watering system will allow AOK to grow more vegetable and herbs for the benefit of the community. We have two established food banks servicing the area and a housing complex and having a greater amount of food available will help us directly respond to a growing need for fresh, accessible, free food within the community. 

The Total Cost is £491.52

Water Butt  x3  £123

Soaker Hose x4 £104

Timer Hose  £62.82

Standard Hose £17,54

Connector Kit x4 £34.16

Seeds/plants/ compost £150

We need to purchase a cooker and cooking utensils, teaching equipment, food, paying utilities and distributing the hot meals to the relevant people. This will involve the beavers (6-8 year olds), Cubs (8-10 year olds) and Scouts (10-14 year old).

beavers will be instructed on how to make basic sandwiches, cubs how to utilise basic equipment such as microwaves and scouts full blowing meals on the cooker. This will be done by looking at menus, getting the appropriate food , ie shopping and then how to prepare the food by chopping and carving food for cooking, then actually cooking the food. We will be advising the young people to time the cooking so that the food will be finished at the same time . We will inform the young people of issues with allergies and as the community is wide and have different cultures we will inform them of the differing types of food that is made through out the world and have respect for these communities,.

we will be distributed to local care homes, distribution to older and disabled people via relavent charities such as Clyde Shopmobility and relevant older people and disabled charities within the town. We will look at people who are isolated in their house and try to engage with them. As the coronavirus virus has lead to more and more people to have mental health issues we will try and engage with this community to ensure vthey can get warm food

This project will benefit the young people within  6th Clydebank  Scouts and endeavour the Scouts to have a good presence within the community.

We will then distribute the food appropriately 

cooker 900

food 500

utilities 900

distribution 200

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. 

Our project is to help anyone struggling with food poverty to be able to come in to Golden Friendships club and access either free freshly cooked meals or subsidised freshly coopked meals. We have projects ongoing throught the years that tackle social isolation where we bring people together with freshly cooked meals and some entertainment. We also host afternoons for families each month where we provide hot and cold drinks with hot and cold snacks. At the moment we are doing free freshly cooked meals October to end of March to help with the cost of living crisis.

What we would like to apply for funding for is new refrigeration. We are currently using domestic fridges and freezers and have been advised we should be using commercial items. 

The total cost of what we need is laid out below.  If we secured £2500 from Community Budgeting, this would go towards the total fund cost.

3 x Fridge Foster Xtra 600l @1,803.75  Refrigeration  £5411.85

2 x Freezer Foster Xtra 600l @1803.75  Freezers        £3607.90

1 x Chest freezer 504l                             Freezer          £1679.98

1 x Hot plate Warmer                              Plate Warmer  £768.00

                                                              TOTAL COST    £ 11467.73

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.  The programme provides participants to cook a meal to take home for dinner to share with their families at each session.

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 and running costs, these come to 2000 pounds with food costs coming to 500 pounds; 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.  

Our project will pay for an experienced Community Garden Project Worker who will

Develop the project with the support of users and volunteers, Develop a seasonal food growing strategy for the space, Organise the allocation of raised beds , Provide ongoing support to all users , Liaise with local schools/nurseries and other local groups within the community to encourage wider engagement with the project, Organise weekly onsite tasks including maintenance and upkeep, Encourage and support the development of an allotments/growing spaces committee, Research further funding opportunities to support material/resource costs and long-term sustainability of the project

We believe our project will support the local community by

Providing the opportunity and resources for local people to grow their own fruit and vegetables, Providing local school children with basic gardening knowledge, highlighting the importance of healthy eating and increasing awareness of ‘where food comes from’, The users and participants will be able to supplement their family’s diets with food produced in the community growing space, Encouraging ownership and personal responsibility , Fostering collaboration and the benefits and positivity of working together, Providing a safe and inclusive space for people to meet and socialise – therefore reducing social isolation, Promoting intergenerational engagement through allotments/growing space users being supported to deliver gardening/growing sessions with local school children, Improving the physical and mental wellbeing of those involved

Breakdown of costs

£2,400 - Cost of Community Garden Project Worker to manage project/£20 per hour x 8 hours per week x 20 weeks