Gordon Banks recently visited The Gate Centre in Alloa to get an update on their busy Crisis Foodbank.

The MP for Ochil and South Perthshire also heard about the other projects that figure prominently at the charity’s Community Hub, which is driven by an army of over 80 volunteers.

The MP discussed the latest statistics with Gate trustees Evelyn Paterson and Val Rose, centre manager Marie Brownhill and foodbank coordinator Adrienne Hilton. A user-analysis shows that in 2014 there has been a trend for an increase in the number of families obtaining assistance and also for requests to cover a week’s supply of meals rather than individual days, and comparisons between 2013 and 2014 show that the number of meals delivered via referrals by agencies across Clackmannanshire had increased by 13,528 to 35,500 on the year - 2015 is predicted to be over 50,000 meals.

Poverty and debt came top of reasons for referral whilst benefit delay and benefit sanctions came next, other reasons for referrals were health and relationship breakdown.

In tandem with the foodbank, The Gate Soup Pot is also seeing numbers increasing week on week. More recently there has been an increase in families with young children attending and enjoying nutritious food in cafe surroundings. This service also provides a clothing bank, toiletries and small household items that have been donated by the local community to The Gate service users.

Although the foodbank is currently the biggest project, trustee Evelyn Paterson was keen to emphasise that The Gate Charity seeks to reach out to improve the quality of life for those who live in the area, and this is very apparent by the sheer variety of other projects that are ongoing in the centre which is a hive of activity.

Other projects include; -The Community Cafe; Serves affordable nutritious food in a welcoming local environment.

-Starter Packs; In conjunction with referral agencies who request support to those moving from homeless accommodation into first tenancies or for others in crisis situations. -Learning Together; A new pilot project is running to help people learn to cook affordable, practical nutritional meals whilst reducing food waste. Participants are from all age groups.

-Seeds 4 Change; Improving and maintaining the grounds around the centre, which benefits the whole community. Volunteers enjoy the outdoor experience whilst gaining valuable social, emotional and practical skills.

Gordon Banks MP said: “As always, I am filled with admiration about what The Gate is doing as a charity. It is no surprise that there is a significant increase in constituents who find it necessary to depend on food parcels from the Crisis Foodbank, but it is utterly shocking that growing numbers of individuals and families find themselves in this situation and so are the reasons behind it.

“The priorities of the Coalition Government do not begin with getting people off welfare and into jobs – it’s about getting them off welfare so they can disappear from the statistics. Charities like The Gate do so, so much for the vulnerable that are suffering from the impact of these policies and also for the working poor who are experiencing the problems of exploitative zero-hours contracts.

“Aside from this, The Gate also seeks to improve the quality of life for those living in the Clackmannanshire area and its impact just grows and grows, reaching across our communities. I congratulate them on their fantastic efforts and wish them all the best in their current and future endeavours.” The Gate chair, Evelyn Paterson, added: “Although the Foodbank is our biggest project at the moment, we look forward to the day when foodbanks will no longer be headline news. There will always be a need for a crisis foodbanks because there always has been a need to support very vulnerable people in certain situations, but hopefully not on the huge scale of referrals we are experiencing today. “However, we want local people to be aware that The Gate is doing many other things too. We were glad to speak to Gordon to tell him about all that is going on and about plans for the future, which includes working towards securing additional funding to expand our premises to incorporate activity space and an IT suite for training which will allow us to offer new services according to local needs.”