Rutherglen and Hamilton West MP Ged Killen met with volunteers at the Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank on Thursday, August 15.
Ged with some of the foodbank volunteers. (Picture courtesy of the Rutherglen Reformer).
Ged volunteered to help at the session in St Columbkille’s chapel hall on Kirkwood Street during the Westminster recess.
The MP was shown the ropes and spent time working with volunteers and meeting service users.
The Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank opened its first distribution centre in Rutherglen in December 2013, followed by a second in Whitlawburn in May 2014. A third base opened in Cambuslang in February 2015.
Today, more than 120 volunteers, led by manager Frances Grant, operate four sessions each week.
Ged Killen MP said:
It was lovely to meet with some of the volunteers at the Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank, who devote so much of their time each week to work in difficult circumstances.
It is shocking that in 2019, residents in this constituency – some of our neighbours, colleagues and acquaintances – are having to rely on the foodbank to put food on the table for themselves and their families.
The foodbank doesn’t just provide food. Parcels also include toiletries, cleaning products and heartbreakingly, baby products and nappies.
More than 90 per cent of the food distributed by foodbanks in The Trussell Trust network is donated by the public, and volunteers at Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank highlighted how vital the support of the local community is.
Anyone who would like to make a donation can drop items off at the Tesco Extra store in Dalmarnock Road in Rutherglen.
Frances Grant, manager of Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank, said:
Volunteers and clients were delighted to see Ged coming into Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank – evidence of his interest and commitment to support local people in financial crisis.
The Rutherglen and Cambuslang Foodbank is available at the chapel hall on Kirkwood Street (behind St Columbkille’s) on Mondays and Thursdays between 12:30 PM and 2:30 PM.
An evening session is held at the Whitlawburn Community Resource Centre on Belmont Road on Tuesdays between 6 PM and 8 PM.
On Fridays, the team is based at Cambuslang Baptist Church hall from 12.30 PM to 2.30 PM.
More information is available at https://rutherglencambuslang.foodbank.org.uk/
19th August 2019
