Clair Coyle: Last News

The number of families who have turned to a charity because they can’t afford toys for their kids this Christmas has more than doubled.

Get the latest Scottish parenting news sent straight to your inbox each week with our newsletter.The number of children living in poverty is on the rise in West Dunbartonshire as the area’s biggest foodbank reports a massive rise in referrals.Figures revealed by the End Child Poverty coalition show the region has the joint fourth worst rate in the country with over 4000 children in households struggling to make ends meet.And they come as West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare (WDCF) revealed referrals for lifeline support have spiked by an incredible 84 percent – they helped a massive 27,500 people in 2020.

Get the stories that matter to you sent straight to your inbox with our daily newsletter.Lifeline foodbanks are marking a year of supporting thousands of people across West Dunbartonshire after the pandemic forced them to find new ways of helping the community.Organisations, including West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare (WDCF) and Food For Thought have spent the past year working around the clock to reach those in need.WDCF closed the doors of its distribution centres on March 20 last year and volunteers couldn’t imagine what the future was going to hold.At the start of the pandemic, manager Clair Coyle told us the closures of the centres could cripple the service and pledged to stay open as long as they could.But despite their fears,

A foodbank boss is fearing for the future of the charity and warned vulnerable people in Dumbarton and Alexandria will be hit hard as the coronavirus crisis deepens.

Join thousands of others who have signed up for the Daily Record newsletter.A Dumbarton foodbank – which has seen demand spike by 50 per cent during the pandemic – warns the peak is yet to come.West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare (WDCF) has supported 3,777 during the first 10 weeks of the Covid-19 crisis.And while need soared by 48 per cent, their volunteer team was drastically cut from 104 to just two.The hardworking staff have been working around the clock to feed those forced on the breadline as a result of the pandemic but last week, they starkly warned the worst is yet to come.Clair Coyle addressed councillors at a full West Dunbartonshire Council meeting, held over video link, with an update on their operations as she urged them