M&S Dumbarton

Provision of emergency food parcels to vulnerable families in the community

West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare provides a one week emergency food parcel to local people in crisis. All food distributed is donated by the local community. We deliver support to the person's home address, supporting roughly 400 people per week. We also run a school uniform bank, a babybank, a fuel poverty project, school holiday brunch bags and a toy bank at Christmas to help families who are going through a difficult time. We work in partnership with local organisations to provide a holistic package of support to each person affected by poverty and food insecurity to maximise positive outcomes. We have a volunteer team of 55 who work across the week from our base in Dumbarton.

Established in May 2017 with just four employees, Well-Fed has grown into a thriving social enterprise employing 13 people and creating enormous social and economic impact within our community and beyond. Trading from our first premises within the Whiteinch Centre, Well-Fed created a safe social space open to the entire community. Over the past 3 years Well-Fed has transformed a small kitchen and cafe space (circa 1000 sqft) into a thriving and flourishing business, with a turnover in the last financial year of £350,000, although more remarkable than this, is the social and economic impact that has been created. Being a truly community led organisation, Well-Fed has worked to tackle the issues identified by the community, in their community. Food poverty, social isolation, lack of opportunity and barriers to inclusion have all been identified as key social issues within the Whiteinch area of the city and as an organisation Well-Fed have responded by providing: Over 33,000 FREE meals to the local community (Monetary value £130,000) Offering FREE school holiday activity and meal provision to over 300 children and their families across all school holidays (Monetary value £165,000) Redistributing over 7000 crates of FREE (approx 125 Tons) surplus food through our dignified food pantry model (Monetary Value £300,000) Operating a FREE homework and learning club with food provision for an average 60 children and their families each week (Monetary value £45,000) Providing a full program of FREE wellbeing activities inc. training and volunteering opportunities to adults and young people (Monetary value £60,000) Hosting over 50 FREE community events with food provision including Christmas Day 2017, 2018 & 2019 (Monetary value £37,000) Total equivalent Monetary value of £737,000 invested in the Whiteinch community As our community engagement has continued to grow year on year and the demand for our service becoming increasingly more complex and multi-faceted, it is clear that Well-Fed has become a much needed and relied on service to the Whiteinch community.