Food charity forced to cut services after council funding blow

A vital Dumbarton-based charity offering emergency food to vulnerable people has been forced to slash services because of a severe cut in council funding.

- STAFF REPORTER

Town centre-based Food for Thought has been told it will receive just £25,750 from the local authority this year - an almost 50 per cent drop from its usual annual grant of £42,000.

Now the charity has no choice but to close its doors one day a week and drastically reduce the number of clients it helps in order to stay afloat.

From next week, the service will operate only on Mondays and Fridays.

In addition, it will stop food bags to adults, focusing solely on families and pensioners, as well as axing outreach projects in Alexandria and Clydebank.

This week, operations manager Charlene Gold spoke of her reluctance to cut back on crucial food provision but said the charity has no choice.

“We’ve had no explanation from the council for this cut in funding,” she said.

“They know we’re struggling as we’ve already had to appeal through the provost for £5000 last month as we’d had nothing since March. When the council produced their budget in April they said there would be no changes or cuts to food insecurity. Now they’ve done it. If we don’t cut back our services, we simply won’t have a charity anymore.