Committee
Welfare Reform Committee 13 May 2014
13 May 2014 · S4 · Welfare Reform Committee
Item of business
Food Banks (Scotland Week 2014 Visits)
You are absolutely right, convener. Please excuse my personalising the issues, but I discussed the matter seriously with some of my Canadian relatives, who, through their local church, are very supportive of food banks. I tried to put across the points that you have highlighted, but they are proud of the fact that their church does so much and that their children automatically help in the same way that they do. As we talked about the issue further, they realised that they had made food bank use normal, and that there were people who were relying on charitable handouts. That made them think a bit. The danger is that we get into the same culture. I am proud of the fact that Loaves & Fishes, which is run by Denis and Cathy Curran, and some of the local churches do such great work. However, the reality is that there will always be people who, for whatever reason, need that kind of provision for a short time or perhaps for longer. Denis Curran told us that the client group had changed, and that is what we must guard against. Basically, we should be saying that no families or children should be going hungry in our towns, cities or rural areas. We must guard against institutionalising that. What I have called food bank creep has happened in Ontario and perhaps other parts of Canada, and it is certainly not something that I want to see here.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
We move to agenda item 3. As members will recall, Linda Fabiani was going to North America, so we gave her a mission—which she chose to accept before the rec...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
I was out in North America in April during Scotland week, so I took the opportunity to visit the New York City human resources administration/department of s...
The Convener
Lab
That sounds very interesting, Linda. I have an observation, rather than a question. With regard to your final comments, I was reading an article a little whi...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
You are absolutely right, convener. Please excuse my personalising the issues, but I discussed the matter seriously with some of my Canadian relatives, who, ...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
You made it clear that the biggest recent rise in the use of food banks in Canada happened as a result of the recession. It is rather unfair to ask you this—...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
I have talked about what I heard directly from the officers of the Ontario Association of Food Banks; I cannot speak from the basis of research that has been...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
It is very interesting to consider the interaction between the state and voluntary programmes, as well as the danger of what you have called food bank creep ...
Alex Johnstone
Con
I have been interested in what Linda Fabiani has had to say about the Canadian experience in particular, and the suggestion that the recession might have cau...
The Convener
Lab
We have a helpful briefing on food banks from the Scottish Parliament information centre. If SPICe continues to monitor the situation, we will welcome any ev...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I believe that we were going to talk about that in an informal session, because SPICe is not at the table just now to give us evidence. My own thoughts are t...
The Convener
Lab
We can take that up when we look at our report on food banks and at information that can assist us.