Local food banks have highlighted a worrying trend of East Kilbride's "newly hungry" - a growing number of working people on comfortable incomes who are being forced to ask for handouts for the first time as the cost of living crisis hits hard.
EK Community Food Bank and Loaves and Fishes are seeing the demand for their services increase week-on-week with each service reporting around a 30 per cent rise from the start of the year.
Food banks are now seeing families through their doors who, pre-pandemic, were able to pay their bills and still be comfortable enough to put food on the table.
And with a sharp drop in donation levels as more and more families find it harder to meet basic costs each month, they say the situation is now critical.
Currently EK Community Food Bank, a non-profit network of local churches in East Kilbride, is dishing out more than 180 emergency food parcels to 156 households every week, with 765 handed out to 908 adults and 298 children last month alone.
Organiser Karen Dornan told Lanarkshire Live : "Although the community does still continue to be extremely generous, we are definitely seeing a drop in donation levels which we can only assume is because more and more families are finding it harder to meet basic costs every month and have less disposable income than before.
"We are seeing the demand increasing every week. People are really trying to make ends meet and, with higher energy prices and shopping bills the money just isn't going far enough.
"Based on our figures from August and September we have seen a 27 per cent increase from the start of the year and only anticipate that being higher and continuing to rise as we approach winter.
"We are seeing an increase in working families turn to us for support as they are struggling to meet the cost of rising bills even with a wage coming in."
The organisation says it has seen more families than ever struggling to provide school uniforms for their children this year, with many sending their children back to school with last years uniform as they simply can't afford to buy new uniforms.
In some cases, even those who receive the uniform grants have had to use this money for other basics instead.
And as energy bills continue to rise, shockingly, the food bank is working with other organisations within the town to help provide warm places for people to use over the winter months.
Karen added: "It is heartbreaking to think in this day and age that we are having to provide these places because people simply can't afford or are too scared to turn on their heating for fear of the cost.
"People who would never have envisaged using a food bank in the past are now in a position where they just don't have anywhere else to turn and have to swallow their pride and ask for help."
The figures for Loaves and Fishes are just as bleak showing a 35 per cent rise in footfall with 400 food parcels going out to 220 children in August and up to 150 parcels a week being collected by hungry locals each week in September.
Loaves and Fishes acting chair and food bank co-ordinator Lesley Davidson says there is an endless "cycle of need" in the town with less resources to help greater numbers in need.
She told us: "We are finding at the moment that we are stuck in the middle of two very challenging circumstances: firstly, those that need us are growing in numbers greatly and secondly, those that can help us are reducing in numbers greatly.
"The concept of the 'newly hungry' is growing all the time. In other words, those that would never ordinarily find themselves in the position of needing a food bank are contacting us daily to ask for help.
"'The working poor' continues to be a growing problem. More and more of those we help have at least one member of their household working. Sadly that is no longer enough to provide food and heat security - to provide any kind of security."
Lesley added: "We, of course, turn no one away. We will always help everyone who asks. But, my goodness, it's getting harder. As the cost of living rises, fuel and energy prices rise, and a world which is becoming increasingly hard to live in affects all of us.
"Those who are most vulnerable are always going to suffer more. We are about to enter the season of 'heat or eat'. It's inhumane that we live in a world like this. One in four children are living in poverty just now. Believe me when I say we are seeing the direct results of this every day."
Loaves and Fishes desperately need carrier bags, food, toiletries, cleaning supplies and pet food and are always grateful for any financial donation, however small.
Drop donations into the food bank on Singer Road, Kelvin Industrial Estate, East Kilbride or call 01355 223657.
Click here for EK Community Food Bank drop-off points or call 01355 247660.
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