UK Government welfare reforms have been blamed for a massive surge in the number of Moray families turning to food banks to feed themselves.
MSPs were told yesterday that demand for one lifeline service in the region had soared by more than 1,000% in a year.
Jo Roberts, of Community Food Moray, said 301 applications were made in January and February this year – up from 26 over the same period in 2013.
She said the Elgin-based organisation had to cope with a surge in the number of calls for help “almost overnight” following the introduction of the Westminster government’s benefits changes in April last year.
Ms Roberts said the group was helping many people in work who were struggling to make ends meet because wages were not keeping pace with the rising cost of living.
She told the Scottish Parliament’s welfare reform committee some clients were being given cold food parcels because they could not afford to use their cookers, ovens and microwaves.
Community Food Moray helps people from different walks of life – including working families on low incomes, people on benefits, the disabled and the elderly.
Clients come from Elgin, Forres, Keith, Buckie and surrounding villages and hamlets.
Food parcels, which are donated by the public, schools and churches, generally contain enough non-perishable goods, such as tinned fruit, vegetables, meat and fish, pasta, cereal, UHT milk, sauces, tea and long-life juice, to last three days.
The charity said many people who needed help had been plunged into debt because of the so-called bedroom tax, benefits sanctions and delays to the payment of crisis loans.
Andy Walker, co-ordinator of another organisation, Moray Food Bank in Elgin’s Batchen Street, said many people who used the service were “starving and desperate”.
He said he often gave people with bags of food a lift home because they could not afford the bus.
Ms Roberts said: “It is very clear in our experience that welfare reforms certainly have had an impact on use of the food bank and almost overnight we noticed the difference.
“The biggest reason is welfare – benefit sanctions have the biggest impact and people have to take the decision whether to heat or eat because they cannot get help for both.
“On our referral forms we ask people about cooking facilities and most have them but they cannot use them because they cannot afford to put electricity in the meter.”
Community Food Moray told MSPs that financial support for people waiting for benefit decisions had to be improved.
The group is also demanding a review of the cost of food, heat, light and travel.
The Trussell Trust, which runs food banks across the north and north-east, helped more than 56,000 people across Scotland between April last year and February 24 – up from 14,318 during the same period the year before.
Scotland development officer, Ewan Gurr, said: “The evidence that we are seeing every day right across our food bank network is that welfare reforms are inextricably linked to the rising demand for emergency food relief.”
Aberdeen SNP MSP Kevin Stewart, a member of the welfare reform committee, said: “It is unacceptable that in 21st century Scotland people are going hungry and are relying on goodwill to feed themselves.”
But north-east Conservative MSP Alex Johnstone, also a committee member, claimed welfare reform was not “fundamentally responsible” for food banks.
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