Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01571 · Session 4

Food Bank Funding

Closed Submitted 14 May 2015 People & Communities
Signatures
0
137 online signatures with a country
Comments
16
Considered
7 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to provide direct funding to food banks to ensure that demand for their services can be fully met.

What the petitioner did first

I have contacted three MSPs; Johann Lamont; Humza Yousaf; and Nicola Sturgeon. So far, I have ony received a reply from Ms Lamont, who attached a copy of the letter she sent to the First Minister on our behalf.
Humza Yousaf has also contacted me and I have spoken to him in person about the issue. He has been very supportive and has offered to do all he can to help us and our petition. He informed me he had written to John Swinney to ask about the government underspend and whether any of it can be allocated to help struggling food banks.
I contated all three MSPs on 27/05/15.
I informed them I am calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to either 1. use their underspend (estimated £145m) to help struggling food banks meet increasing demand or 2. raise tax by 1p to raise an estimated £256m to alleviate the pressure.

As highlighted, we have been having food collections. We have used Sunny Govan Community Radio as a means of promoting our cause and broadcasting emergency appeals for food. All of this on top of other donations from other sources. However, demand is increasing and it has now reached the point where the community is donating lots and lots of food and less than two weeks later, the food bank shelves are empty.
We have also organised public meetings on the food bank issue.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 22 Sep 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 1 Dec 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Current Petitions
    1 mention
  3. 9 Feb 2016
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  4. 1 Mar 2016
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  5. 30 Jun 2016
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  6. 8 Sep 2016
    Social Security Committee
    Petition
    1 mention
  7. 25 Oct 2018
    Social Security Committee
    Public Petition
    1 mention

Signatures by country

137 online signatures
  1. Scotland106 77.4%
  2. United Kingdom28 20.4%
  3. Australia2 1.5%
  4. United States1 0.7%

Comments

16 comments, oldest first
  1. Tam Dewar 18 Jun 2015
    This would be a very good use of the Scottish Government underspend.
  2. alan grant 19 Jun 2015
    Until we eliminate poverty altogether I support this motion.
  3. Alan Cherry 19 Jun 2015
    As the necessity of food banks, in my view, is in part to do with government welfare legislation, it is right that the government should have a part in offsetting the effects on the people affected by the legislation.
  4. lorraine king 20 Jun 2015
    this day and age food banks is a disgrace there should be no need for these the worlds 3rd richest country the eton boys separating the rich from the poor its poor wee weans who are having to get up and go to school hungry and there mums not being able to wash there clothes and when the scottish winter bites well thats another story shame on this lot how they can sleep at night is way beyond me evil to the core
  5. Helen Rodger 21 Jun 2015
    My food bank at Hillington Park Church keeps running out of food. Please help if you can.
  6. Lorraine Rodger 22 Jun 2015
    Trussell Trust data + anecdotes are heartbreaking.
  7. Murray Leith 22 Jun 2015
    I fully support the submission of this petition and request that the committee forward it with the utmost degree of urgency to the Scottish Government with full support. As a regular contributor to foodbanks, it is disgraceful that a government should underpsned its budget when people are literally running out of food. This is Scotland in the 21st Century, we should act like the people who say we are.
  8. Nick Jenkins 22 Jun 2015
    Foodbanks have become an essential service in an era of ideologically motivated austerity. The Scottish Government has committed itself to mitigating the most severe aspects of this programme (e.g. the bedroom tax). I urge the Scottish Government to continue this work by using its underspend to feed families living in extreme and socially unjust poverty.
  9. Ian McGregor 27 Jun 2015
    I have reservations about governments funding foodbanks. Governments should render foodbanks unnecessary. However, we start from where we are.
  10. Margaret W Wallace 7 Jul 2015
    We need Help
  11. Dominic O'Hara 11 Jul 2015
    Dundee Against Welfare Sanctions campaign is also calling for the Scottish Government to immediately cover the financial losses of welfare sanctions imposed on people claiming welfare. Stop hunger now. SNP Scottish Government put your money where your mouth is!
  12. doug gibb 13 Jul 2015
    It is shameful that the snp choose to use Scots misery for their own political ends when they have the power to raise taxes and could end austerity tomorrow.
  13. Bruce Sutherland 14 Jul 2015
    Foodbanks are a symptomatic of a failed Welfare system which under this Tory govt has been changed and cut for the worse. I agree that SGovt should in short term do something help these people who have fallen through the widening cracks in the system. Every Scots priority should be to campaign for Scotland to be given its own Welfare powers to make changes for the better, direct funding Foodbanks is in the long term unsustainable. There should be no need for Foodbanks at all. I want to campaign for that.
  14. Pete McElroy 16 Jul 2015
    It is a scandal that the policies of the Westminster Government have made food banks a necessity and it will only get worse when the measures in the budget take effect. The Scottish Government should do all in its powers to protect the poor against Tory policies designed to protect the wealthy and attack those without. Welfare should be devolved to Holyrood.
  15. Anne McAllister 22 Jul 2015
    Well said Doug Gibb x
  16. David Nairn 30 Jul 2015
    Foodbanks are a disgrace to humanity!