Food Train is on the brink of closure as it tries to save its lifeline services.
A crowdfunding campaign has been launched as part of efforts to save a lifeline Glasgow older people’s charity on the brink of closure.
Food Train hopes that the push will give its city branch a fighting chance of survival as it holds talks with potential funders over supporting its work.
The charity’s grocery deliveries to more than 400 over-65s across Glasgow - who would otherwise struggle to get their shopping - will stop unless substantial new financial support can be secured.
Management have been working desperately to ensure its members are not abandoned after Glasgow City Council, which had backed the organisation’s work for a decade, decided not to continue its financial support from April 1.
Staffing numbers have already cut back from four to three, while Food Train has also sold its minibus - used for trips as part of befriending work to tackle loneliness - to buy more time for its shopping service.
In the past 10 years, Govanhill-based Food Train Glasgow has made more than 67,000 grocery deliveries.
Food Train regional manager Chris Curtis has been working to try and ease the anxieties of members since the council funding blow was delivered in January as well as supporting work to keep the branch running.
He said: “To say that our members feel let down by councillors is an understatement. We know how much they rely on our support and we’re not prepared to walk away without a fight.
“When I talk to people about Food Train, I often tell them that there are people in Glasgow who I would have sleepless nights worrying about if it wasn’t for the fact that I knew our charity was there. Now that there’s a real danger of us not being there, I am going to have a lot of sleepless nights.
“Time and again in recent weeks, our older members have told us how fearful they are of how they will get food if we are not there to help. Many of them have no-one else to whom they can turn.
“Please, support our work if you can.”
More than 5,000 people also signed a petition calling on authorities to find some way of supporting Food Train’s work in Glasgow.
It costs £144,000-a-year - £395 per day - to run the branch. It is hoped that the Crowdfunder will provide enough support to keep it operating into at least the summer, by which time the outcome of various funding talks should be known.
Demand on Food Train’s services across Glasgow rocketed by 70% at the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic as older people were forced to isolate in their own homes. They have remained consistently high since.
Food Train works with more than 3,000 older people each year across Scotland.
Food Train chair, Mahdi Hasan, who has been a volunteer with the Glasgow branch for seven years, said: “This is a desperate situation. Hundreds of older people across the city need our support. I deliver to our clients four days every week and it’s been heartbreaking to see many of them in tears from the anxiety caused by the real danger of our services disappearing.
“Despite the operating challenges during lockdown or the environmental challenges during the big freeze when we had the Beast from the East in 2018, in the seven years I have volunteered in Glasgow we have not missed a food delivery when it was needed.
“Without Food Train, worrying numbers of people will be put at greater risk of malnutrition, loneliness and falling ill - putting greater strain on health and social care services.
“We know that times are tight for everyone, but any support that people can give would be hugely appreciated. Every extra day that we can secure beyond April 1 gives us a greater chance of longer-term survival.”
