Some 623 “customers” and eight tonnes of food distributed over a period of just four months.
This was the shocking summary of the output of Glenrothes Foodbank, as the volunteers behind the project revealed the extent of the plight affecting residents in central Fife.
Mary Hill, director of Glenrothes YMCA and one of the driving forces behind the project, said desperate people had travelled from as far away as Burntisland to receive food aid from the Rimbleton centre.
Addressing councillors at Fife House, she said that people affected by changes to their benefits were extremely susceptible to finding themselves without food.
“If people have no money for food or electricity then they’ll be eating fresh air,” Mrs Hill said.
“We have provided food for people up to the time when their benefit will kick in again. That can be weeks for some people or months for others.
“It is a problem that we can only respond to, and we will support those people. If people don’t have food then we won’t turn them away.”
Since the Glenrothes Foodbank opened in December, others have also opened elsewhere in Fife, relieving the strain slightly.
Mrs Hill added: “People were coming from all over Fife. Since we opened there are new sites in other towns and now we are only giving food out to Glenrothes and district.”
The YMCA has been integral to the launch of the Glenrothes Foodbank project, with money from local council funds and the Big Lottery Fund having secured the future of the initiative until next year.
However, Mrs Hill has confirmed that while the “Y” will continue to support the foodbank after 2015, it will no longer be involved with the management side of the operation.
A decision on whether to relocate from its premises at Pentland Court in Rimbleton will also be taken by the future management structure at that time.
An emotional John Beare, SNP councillor for Glenrothes North, Leslie and Markinch, said he was sickened by the need for a foodbank in the town.
“It’s been 11 years since I last cried and this cuts to the core of me, that we need foodbanks,” he said.
“Foodbanks are one of the biggest-growing ‘industries’, if you excuse the expression, and we have failed as a political class.
“This is one of the richest countries on the planet and there is something very wrong in society and our economy. There is a reason that drives me and that is to eradicate need.
“I admit people fall through the gaps sometimes but it pains me that we are in this position in the 21st Century.”
Labour councillor Ian Sloan echoed Mr Beare’s sentiments, adding: “It is a tragedy that we are reviewing the ‘success’ of the foodbank. It really is quite upsetting that we have a need for foodbanks but the reality is that we do.”
Picture by George McLuskie