M&S Bishopbriggs

We recently started our food bank due to the current covid pandemic as we had discovered that many people in our community were struggling to feed their families. We decided to take matters into our own hands to feed our community! So far we have helped, nursing homes, sheltered housing, elderly, people who are shielding and various families around the Kilmarnock Area, however this isn't enough there are still too many people going hungry and we want to feed them all!

Our foodbank is part of Trussell Trust's network of 428 foodbanks, working to tackle food poverty and hunger in our local communities, as well as across the UK. Our foodbank is a project founded by local churches and community groups, working together towards stopping hunger in our local area. We rely on donations of food and money for the running of the Foodbank.

We are a lunch club which meets every Wednesday to provide a lunch of home made soup/filled rolls/home baking/biscuits/tea/coffee for local people. We have 77 members in age groups from mid 40s to early 90s. With a mix of able bodied people, 3 wheelchair bound, 2 registered blind. The majority of our members are fit enough to make their own way to the Club but some are housebound and we collect these people each week The Club provides company, stimulation and the ability to make new friends. As well as providing lunch, we also have entertainment each week. Some weeks this is bingo, others a quiz. We also have professional singers who come along to entertain us on a regular basis. Chair aerobics is provided around every month and this is very popular and helpful with movement for some of our members We also have chiropodist who visits every 4 or 5 weeks, which is very popular Around four times each year we have a professional troupe who come along to entertain us with a 'grown up' pantomime. We make a weekly charge of £5 to those who are able to pay, to cover the running costs and allow us to arrange outings with any surplus monies. There is no pressure for payment from those unable to pay We do not collect food from any other organisation and the Neighbourly donation is a boon to our members who very much appreciate the assistance. We have been fortunate to have some financial backing from North Lanarkshire Council since our inception. We have also over the past few years been fortunate enough to have occasional donations from local businesses. Each Christmas we have a raffle to raise additional funds and when possible, we have a Social night when tickets are sold to members of the local community to come along to see what we do. We have now been on the go for 10 years and our accounts are audited each year by a local accountancy firm Whenever we have been given a donation from local businesses, we try to ensure it is publicised in our local free community magazine, Stepps on the Level. We were fortunate to be entertained by children from one of our local primary schools just before Christmas last year. We are also at present enjoying computer tuition from local primary 7 pupils The address of the Club is The Old School Centre, St Josephs Church Hall, Cardowan Road, Glasgow G33 6AA. We identify potential new members through word of mouth from local people/ organisations who advise us of vulnerable people. We have a waiting list at present as the Hall is at capacity with our existing members. We have a facebook page - Wednesday Lunch Club - which has loads of photographs plus videos showing our members joining in the fun.