The Barrhead News and Renfrewshire Gazette is calling on our kind-hearted readers to help support families who are struggling to put food on the table this Christmas.

Recyclable paper bags have been placed inside every copy of this week’s paper as part of our annual Bank on Us campaign.

These bags can be filled with non-perishable food items and handed into your local food bank.

All donations received through the campaign will be handed out to people who will be relying on vital food banks this Christmas.

One such service is East Renfrewshire Foodbank which has 35 to 40 volunteers and is based in Barrhead, Busby and Thornliebank.

Founding member Ken Trench says that they never envisioned that the service would still be running today but it remains a vital part of the community.

He said: “A lot of the team who were here at the very beginning are still here and probably none of us would have thought we would still be here 11 years later, but we are still working harder than ever.

“Demand is still very high.

"The cost-of-living crisis has really had the biggest impact in terms of our numbers over all the years we've been running due to rising food prices and energy prices, so that's kept the numbers high."

The service offers pre-made bags which include a shopping list of items designed to supply families and individuals with three days’ worth of meals, as well as extras such as toiletries depending on what comes in.

The food bank’s current most needed items are tins of beans and soup, tinned fruit, tinned vegetables, tinned meat, cereals, UHT milk, tea, coffee, juice and biscuits.

While the amount of donations received by the foodbank is “still good” and they appreciate the continued support, the shelves, however, are currently looking barer than they have in the past. 

The need, therefore, for donations remains vital, if not more vital than ever.

“Early this year, we started asking for things like beans and soup, which for years and years, was something we never really needed to ask for,” added Ken.

"If you saw the warehouse now compared to say maybe a year and a half ago, it's like a different landscape.

“A year and a half ago, we would have had at least the shelves half full, but now they're like a quarter or a fifth full with a few trays of this and a few trays of that."

One factor behind the need for more stock is the rise in the proportion of larger families using the service.

“We are consistently busy and I think the biggest difference this year has been a really big increase in the proportion of larger families coming in,” said Ken.

“We are getting a lot of families with three, four or five children sometimes, so in terms of our stock it just means that so much more is going out.”

East Renfrewshire Foodbank is based at 14 Lowndes Street in Barrhead, at Busby Parish Church and at Thornliebank Resource Centre on Robslee Drive.

It is open to take donations in Barrhead between 12pm and 2pm on Tuesdays and between 2pm and 4pm on Fridays.

Donations can be handed in at the Busby base from 1pm to 3pm on Tuesdays and at Thornliebank Resource Centre from 10.30am to 12pm on Tuesdays.

As well as the food drive, the Barrhead News and Renfrewshire Gazette will be raising money for our Bank on Us toy drive via GoFundMe - which will deliver gifts to kids who may otherwise not have received a present to open this Christmas.

We are hoping our readers, nurseries, schools, and businesses get behind the campaign by donating.

All proceeds will be used to purchase toys which will be distributed to charities to be handed out to parents and put under the tree.

Stacey Mullen, editor of the Barrhead News and Renfrewshire Gazette, said: "Times are tough, families are facing so much hardship amid the cost-of-living crisis, and if we can all take a moment to spare a thought for them and give something back, no matter how small, it will make a huge difference.

“The greatest thing about editing this newspaper is knowing that our readers all look out for each other and doing this campaign will no doubt prove that.

“So thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us with Bank on Us.”

You can donate towards our toy bank by clicking HERE.

The Bank on Us 2024 campaign is proudly sponsored by Allied Vehicles, Arnold Clark, Smyths Toys Superstores, SPAR Scotland, Stagecoach, StepChange, Storage Vault and Wise Group.

We will be speaking with our sponsors and other food banks in the coming weeks.