More than 1,300 sign in 24 hours as campaign to secure charity’s survival steps up.
A petition has been launched calling on health and social care chiefs to save a lifeline service for hundreds of older people across Glasgow.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf are also being urged to intervene with Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) to stave off the closure of Food Train in the city.
The older people’s charity supports more than 400 over-65s across Glasgow, ensuring they do not go without food and meals through deliveries by its volunteers.
But it has been plunged into financial crisis and faces closure within weeks after Glasgow City Council - which has funded the lion’s share of its work for the past decade - last week decided not to continue its support.
The council suggested the HSCP was the most appropriate organisation to fund Food Train and met with HSCP staff.
However, Food Train is concerned that no specific funding has been identified.
Food Train’s petition calls on the HSCP to find the funding needed to keep the Glasgow branch, based at Govanhill, open.
In less than 24 hours, it has been signed by more than 1,300 people.
Food Train chief executive Michelle Carruthers said: “Our ask for support is about the lives of older people. We are deeply concerned for the health of the hundreds we support if our Glasgow branch is not saved.
“It’s a false economy for the health and social care partnership not to support us. Without Food Train, it’s they who will be left to pick up the tab for getting food and meals to those who need them - or for the additional NHS and care support they will need if they fall ill from becoming malnourished. Ours is a cost-effective way of providing critical services.
“To say that our members are fearful about how they will get the food they need to live is an understatement. We ensure they have the support they need. It would be criminal if they were put in danger of going hungry.
“When the NHS is working so hard to keep older people out of hospital, it makes no sense to remove a valuable strand of support for keeping them well at home.”
In a letter to the First Minister and Health Secretary, Ms Carruthers has urged them to raise the issue with the HSCP as Glasgow MSPs.
She wrote: “On behalf of our older members, your constituents, we urge you to intervene, to encourage Glasgow City Council and Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership to find alternative funding and secure food access for older people across the city.”
In the past 10 years, Food Train has made more than 67,000 grocery deliveries across Glasgow.
