Edinburgh Food Project is committed to ending the need for foodbanks and to making sure that everyone has what they need to thrive. Our foodbank centres have been welcoming drop-ins from other agencies for some time, and our dedicated Money Advice Service has been helping people to make financial gains.
We wanted to bring everything together under one roof so that we can offer holistic wrap around support to people in crisis. We’re delighted to say that we’ve now opened a new Community Hub at the Thistle Centre of Wellbeing in Craigmillar which will offer a new style of foodbank, together with a range of advice and support. We’ve closed our foodbank at Potter’s House and will now be operating our new Craigmillar foodbank every Tuesday and Thursday in our new home.
New location:
Thistle Centre of Wellbeing
12 Queen’s Walk
Edinburgh
EH16 4EA
MAP
New times:
Tuesday: 11.00 – 13.30
Thursday: 11.00 – 13.30
New way of operating:
- People will be greeted on arrival at Thistle and directed to the foodbank
- They will check in and be offered a cup of tea or coffee
- They will then be issued with a shopping list of food and other essentials, plus vouchers for baby items and cat/dog food as needed
- People can then select the items on the shopping list from the shelves in a similar way to the way they would in a supermarket – including fresh fruit and veg
Additional support and advice:
- Representatives from our Money Advice Service will be there in person during foodbank hours to offer support and advice
- Edinburgh Food Project volunteers will provide a listening ear for anyone who needs one
- In the future (Oct/Nov onwards) other delivery partners and agencies will be present at the foodbank to offer additional specialist advice and support e.g. on housing or employment
Bethany Biggar, Edinburgh Food Project Director said:
“It’s not ok that people need to use foodbanks, but until everyone can afford the essentials Edinburgh Food Project is committed to making sure we provide emergency food for the people who need it in the most dignified way possible. We have been running our Money Advice Service and inviting services to drop-in to our foodbanks successfully for a while now and we know that it works. This move to the Centre of Wellbeing represents an exciting step-change; bringing everything together in a Community Hub to support people to find a way out of poverty for good.”
