November and December were an exceptionally busy months for Clydesdale Food Bank with 119 referrals in November and 103 in December.  This brought the annual total to 1102 compared to 926 in 2017, an increase of 19%.  As of 14 Jan, the number of referrals so far this year was 42.

One of the regular workers in the food bank, Ronnie Muirhead, had been off ill but he is now much better and has been back in helping to unpack donations and make up boxes for satellites.

There has been an amazing outpouring of generosity from the public, schools, churches and businesses to the extent that we have been unable to store everything at our premises.  Arrangements were made for some items to be temporarily stored at St John's.  These will gradually be moved up to the food bank premises as space allows.  This ?ood of donations was, of course wonderful, and gratefully received, and would go a long way to ensuring adequate resources if it were spread more evenly throughout the year.

The Christmas hamper project saw a big increase in uptake as well with 99 referrals filled compared to 63 last year.  We are grateful to John Moonie and to Steven Noon for allowing us the use of the Clyde Street premises for storing and packing the hampers and to R & W Scott for assisting with delivering the hampers.

As always we must pay tribute to the wonderful volunteers who give their time so faithfully to sort, pack or to deliver the food.  Thank you to all involved and may you all have well stocked pantries and the promise of a meal tomorrow.