Elaine Nisbet: Last News

Sign up to the weekly West Lothian Courier newsletter for the latest West Lothian news and sport.Many in West Lothian are facing a “cliff edge” as temporary schemes to help during the Covid outbreak come to an end.That’s among the findings of West Lothian Council’s Anti-Poverty Service which has been consulting with groups to respond to Holyrood’s Social Security Committee  which is trying to understand how Covid has hit Scotland and how Scottish social security can respond.Key questions cover what the  downturn will look like and how it will effect people.

Sign up to the weekly West Lothian Courier newsletter for the latest West Lothian news and sport.West Lothian’s Food Network fed 4200 people a week at the height of the Covid-19 outbreak- and has moved 100 tonnes of food through its distribution centres in the last six months.Now, as a second wave of the outbreak looms, the network is feeding 3000 people a week.Anti-poverty manager, Elaine Nisbet, revealed the shock figures to a meeting of West Lothian Council’s Voluntary Organisations Policy development and Scrutiny Panel.The network was only formed at a conference a week before lockdown.Mrs Nisbet, who screened a video of the work the network has been doing for the panel, told the meeting: “Food insecurity was something we  wanted to

Sign up to the weekly West Lothian Courier newsletter for the latest West Lothian news and sport.West Lothian Council has backed tentative Holyrood plans for legislation on a public right to food but  has warned that more needs to be done to bring the food industry on board for it to work.There are also concerns that any new laws will overlap with work already underway to improve the access to food by the most vulnerable in society.The Scottish Government  has asked local councils for their views on parliamentary consultation on the proposed Right to Food (Scotland) Bill, which is in early stages.West Lothian’s anti-poverty manager Elaine Nisbet told a meeting of the council’s executive that access to nutritious food was a significant and