Dozens of health and social care experts have backed a campaign to save a Glasgow charity that provides vital support to older people. Food Train Glasgow is facing closure within weeks after its funding application for the next three years was rejected by Glasgow City Council.
The charity delivers food and meals to more than 400 older people as well as providing help with household jobs and befriending support.
Almost 30 leading figures have signed an open letter to Glasgow City Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) urging it to step in with the funds to save Food Train’s city branch.
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Signatories include Scottish Care chief executive Donald Mackaskill, Age Scotland chief executive Mark O’Donnell and Peter Kelly, director of the Poverty Alliance. Others include academics and organisation leaders in areas including food security and malnutrition.
The letter also calls on Scottish Government Ministers - including First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and Health Secretary Humza Yousaf, both Glasgow MSPs - to do everything they can to help identify the funding needed.
It reads: “The peril that Food Train’s Glasgow branch now faces does not demonstrate a Scotland where people from every walk of life take pride and pleasure in, and benefit from, the food they produce, buy, cook, service and eat each day.
“Rather it shows an ignorance of the basic human right - and need - of food.
“Without Food Train, hundreds of older people across the city will not be able to access food in a way that prioritises choice and dignity. It will instead lead to an increase in food insecurity and malnutrition.
"There can be no doubt that this decision will have a detrimental impact on the lives of hundreds of older people across the city who rely on Food Train to access food, as well as the wider social support its services provide."
The letter comes after a petition launched by Food Train - calling on the HSCP to find the funds to support its work - reached more than 4,000 signatures.
Glasgow City Council had previously told the charity that the Health and Social Care Partnership would be better placed to provide support, but its officials have so far indicated they have no funding available.
A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health and Social Care Partnership said: “The HSCP has no mechanism through which to issue grants and therefore is not in a position to provide the Food Train with the funding it seeks.”
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