Moray’s under-pressure foodbank service received a boost yesterday when the Scottish Government awarded them a £43,518 boost.
The cash being passed to Community Food Moray is a share of the £518,000 allocated by the Scottish Government to help people struggling to feed their families.
A report by the Trussell Trust saying that the number of people using foodbanks in Scotland had risen four-fold over just a year prompted the move by Holyrood politicians.
The Emergency Food Fund was announced in Glasgow yesterday by deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who blamed UK Government reforms for the crisis facing foodbanks throughout the country.
She said: “Scotland will see its welfare budget reduced by over £6billion by 2015/16 – it is vital that we gain the full powers of independence in order to build a better Scotland.”
However, Jackie Baillie, the social justice spokeswoman for Scottish Labour, insisted that the SNP had no “real solutions” to the problem.
Community Food Moray’s coordinator Andy Walker welcomed the funding, saying that it was enough to keep them going for 18 months.
He said: “In an area like Moray the situation can be compounded by issues like rural poverty, fuel poverty, isolation and low wages.”