Mr Ewan Walker

Thu, Mar 17th 2016 at 6:45 pm - 8:45 pm

Ewan Walker - Edinburgh Foodbanks
Raffle - Iain Fairbairn.
Reception - Richard Brown / Gerald Smith.


The speaker at the Rotary Club of South Queensferry on Thursday 17th March was Ewan Walker. His thought-provoking subject was food banks. As Operations Manager for Edinburgh North West Foodbank, Ewan is at the front line in the movement to supply families in need with three days' emergency food. Poverty is defined as living off 60% or less of the average income and in Scotland this applies to 20% of the population. Despite areas of great affluence, Edinburgh is in the top 5% of deprived areas. Edinburgh North West Foodbank is part of the organisation set up by the Trussell Trust in which local churches take the lead. Food is donated by the public, often at supermarket collections, and redistributed to families who are referred  to the foodbank by various authorities like social workers, health centres and church officials. It is not possible to obtain food without a referral. A video highlighting the case of a lady who lost everything through illness and redundancy showed how easy it is to slip close to starvation.  Ewan explained that his group distributed 68 tonnes of food in north west Edinburgh last year, feeding 6,986 people. This year already over 7,000 have received emergency food packs. In Edinburgh as a whole the Trussell Trust fed over 14,000 last year. Taking into account other independent food banks and agencies such as the Salvation Army, Ewan believes the true number of people receiving food support could be double that figure. In summing up, Ewan said the principal causes of food poverty were benefit delays, often caused by benefit changes, low income, debt, unemployment and homelessness. Until such conditions were rectified the situation was likely to get worse. Meanwhile the Trussell Trust was also instituting programmes to help clients manage money and was working with energy companies to solve the very real problem of fuel poverty.

In proposing the vote of thanks, Rotarian Gerald Smith said that Ewan Walker's work with food banks was in his own words not a job but a passion. The presentation focused on an  aspect of modern society of which few people realised the scale.

To find about more visit www.edinburghnwfoodbank.org.uk