Almost 400 people reached out for help to feed their families on Christmas Day clearing one Stirling group - who provide free food to the community - out of turkeys completely.
Stirling Community Food, based on Wellgreen Lane in the city, collects excess and sell-by-date food from stores and supermarkets to give to those in need and at the mercy of ever tightening household budgets.
With the pressures particularly tight this Christmas, demand for the service has soared - with hub manager Joe Swindells admitting that the uptake for their services had risen by 50 per cent.
In a stark demonstration of that, the project - which is run by environmental charity Transition Stirling - revealed on its Facebook page on Christmas Eve night that 382 people had come through the doors on the eve of the big day looking for support.
The post, put up on the page at 7:25pm, read: “Unfortunately we did not have enough turkeys to meet demand and there are no more left. We still have plenty of other food for the taking.
“We are closed now. If people have questions you are much more likely to get answers if you head down tomorrow.
“We have had over 382 people through the door today, so as you can imagine our ability to respond to direct messages is a bit limited.
“We have one more collection overnight and will be open tomorrow 10-12, with fresh soup, all the best and Merry Christmas.”
The project also provided ‘warm spaces’ for those in need on both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day at its Wellgreen hub.
Since the beginning of 2022, the project has served a total of 17,888 people, collecting donations from spots including M&S in Stirling and Dunblane, Bridge of Allan’s Co-op, the Blairdrummond Smiddy Farm Shop, and Stirling’s Aldi and Lidl stores.
Their efforts have also helped Transition Stirling nominated for a pair of prizes at the Stirling Business Awards - Charity of the Year and Outstanding Contribution to the City.
Hub manager Joe Swindells said: “Everyone is welcome at Stirling Community Food and we are delighted to provide them with food that would otherwise have gone to waste.
“Globally, more than one third of food is wasted. Food waste is responsible for 10 per cent of greenhouse gases, and we use a landmass the size of China to produce food we end up throwing away.
“The amount of food our small project has saved from waste is a whopping 53,432.67 kgs.
“We’ve also opened a pantry, containing food we buy in, and we typically suggest a donation of 50p per item. This can range from bottles of Irn Bru to whole chickens.
“This food changes all of the time and is different every week.”
