Lidl Dumbarton

To assist the “Homeless” and others on the pavement, or in hostels, or in the community generally, who are in need of assistance. This may be visually / verbally / writing asking for help, looking like they need assistance or simply presenting as in need of assistance. Assistance comes in the form of our 2 initiatives - the TWALK and the TDROP The TWALK, provides hot drinks, soup, other foods and warm clothing on a non-judgemental basis for those who present as needing support. And it provides a listening ear for people who find themselves living in isolation and provides information and moral support service and some signposting, to more formal and expert help, to those on the streets who seek it. Our TWALK activity roams the streets of the Glasgow City centre, looking - often in their customary places - for those in need of help. We are often approached directly on the street by those seeking help who identify us by our Hi Viz jackets. The TDROP, promotes the ethos of ‘zero waste’ by working with stores in Glasgow to ensure that any food that they have, due to be disposed of, can be used by the Project. By distributing these goods to those who present as needing support or to “Homeless” shelters., or to Community food initiatives. Our TDROP activity uses a directory we compiled and keep up to date of Hostels for the homeless as the targeted venues for our food deliveries. No charge is ever levied.  Conversely we sometimes receive donations in cash in the moment from members of the public observing us carrying out our activity.  This is used to directly fund supplies for our project. In addition we would hope to continue to participate in toy donation activities especially at Xmas, with our main focus being on a Children's Hospice. We hope also to continue to make occasional donations of "hardware" such as laptops. bikes, fridges, freezers, and dishwashers. We would hope to repeat an initiative this Xmas Eve, replicating last year, of distributing parcels (mainly food). This was organised by two of our volunteers and supported by some others. We have a storage facility rented from Safestore at Port Dundas, Glasgow, but our preparatory activity is done within the homes of the volunteers. We collect donated food from various stores - see below - in accordance with any rules that they apply. We are members of the Glasgow Community Food Network, and of the Interfaith Food Justice Network.

We aim to alleviate food poverty for the most vulnerable people in our community. We provide emergency food aid parcels to families with children and pensioners. We do this through both organisational and self referal services to ensure that those in most need receive the emergency assistance they require. This is facilitated in a friendly non-judgemental and helpful manner. We offer a weekly free soup and sandwich session which helps with social isolation and food insecurity alongside fostering a sense of community belonging. We also help with free lunch bags for local school children through any school holidays and a yearly Christmas Toy Bank.

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.