Eildon staff make a difference at Cyrenians depot in Leith

Eildon staff make a difference at Cyrenians depot in Leith

This week Irina Juodeike, Susan Turner, Noon Malik, and Marnie McVitie from Eildon Group travelled to Leith in Edinburgh to help out as part of ‘Eildon Makes a Difference’ at the Cyrenians Food Depot for their ‘Food is the First Step’ appeal.

According to Cyrenians, 1 in 5 adults in Scotland are currently skipping meals to make ends meet. They are having to choose between putting food on the table or keeping the lights on.

The group of four met up with Sam Adderley who coordinates the work at the depot and she confirmed that the number of supplies going out now has increased by 30% since the start of the pandemic. It is a startling statistic.

The Eildon staff said that it was daunting to see first-hand how much food is going out to lots of people via Community Larders, and cafes all over the region (feeding up to 20,000 people per week). There are regular suppliers who send food supplies in daily like Tesco and the Co-op but they don’t know from one day to the next what supplies they will be. Everything is catalogued on arrival and given a code which is what you search for when making up the orders from each order sheet. It was extremely well organised which made the job easy to pick up.

Sophie Bell, who is the fundraising manager for Cyrenians, said that through its FareShare network, community pantries and cook school the charity is providing dignified access to quality food and using food as the vehicle to foster stronger community links, develop crucial skills around food preparation and budgeting, to create peer support and ensure lasting change.

The appeal is the kick-start towards a safer future for someone in the community today.

The staff from Eildon said that it was a privilege to help out and would encourage others to give it a try.

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