Families & Food Poverty
Working within Scotland, like many other organisations, we are increasingly aware of the food poverty experienced by many families.
We have been working closely with our local partners to determine how best to assist those most in need. Part of this approach is establishing a community cookery school to ensure we have a long-term, sustainable approach to supporting families at all stages.
In addition to our work to address food poverty, we are involved with a project to support vulnerable families to make their homes more habitable for the children to thrive in their home environment.
Over the past five years we have worked with many different groups of families, including those with a disability and older adults, to arrange a neighbourhood Christmas dinner in a local hotel giving some much needed festive cheer and a community focus for otherwise isolated individuals. During COVID we had to adapt this approach and instead hand delivered cooked Christmas dinners to over 100 families in the local area.
Over the pandemic we worked with our partner in Romania to support a number of Roma families to access basic food and ensure that they were able to have at least two meals a day.
With the outbreak of the conflict in Ukraine, we have facilitated the employment of 2 staff in Romania to work with Ukrainian families who have fled the conflict. The staff (one Ukrainian and one Romanian) are supporting the refugees to negotiate appropriate accommodation and support, particularly around registering their children in the local schools.
We worked with our partner in Ghana to purchase land and grow rice which feeds over 120 children who have been orphaned and who attend a makeshift school, known as “the School with No Name”. We have also a wide-ranging programme to address WFCL (Worst form of child labour) throughout Ghana which includes a scholarship programme and holiday programmes.