Dalbeattie Food Bank receives Rotary Club funding boost

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Dalbeattie Food Bank has been handed a funding boost.The town’s Rotary Club has agreed to provide £2,000 a year for the next three years following a recent talk from food bank manager Donna McKnight.Donna outlined the history of the development of the food bank which was launched in 2020 to support families affected by the Covid lockdown.For the following two years it operated through the Castle Douglas partnership of Stepping Stones but at the start of July the link was severed and it now runs under the wing of Dalbeattie Initiative out of its High Street office.There is no stereotypical client: services are on offer for young families, older retired people, those who have been furloughed or have lost their jobs and those on long term benefits.It provides a collect or delivery service four days per week as well as having a 24 hour emergency helpline.Packages are tailored to the size and needs of a family group with each package intended to cover requirements for four days.Over and above the core provision, it also runs targeted initiatives such as last year’s Christmas project which saw full Christmas dinners being provided for 28 adults and seven children.There is also the kids summer lunch programme which provides lunch to children three days a week over the summer holiday period.Donna and her team are keen to provide more than a crisis-only service.They are taking steps to support individuals and families with a follow through programme which will provide advice and support in areas such as financial planning, budgeting and healthy eating with the intention of trying to lift clients out of the cycle of deprivation to which they can be prey.Future planning is based on an anticipation of having to supply in the region