Dinner - Speaker Jilly Guild talking about ' Developments at Glenrothes Foodbank

On Thursday 6^th April President Brian Johnson welcomed 13 Club Rotarians, 2 Rotarians from The Rotary Club of Cupar Ian Rutherford and Pat Mitchell and speaker Jilly Guild to this lunch time meeting held at Gilvenbank Hotel. 

Seven apologies for absence were received.

Jim Boyd brought back greetings from the Rotary Club of Kirkcaldy.

President Brian advised members that the District Assembly will take place at the Caird Hall in Dundee on the 30^thApril 2017. He also mentioned that the 60^th Anniversary dinner would be smart dress rather than a formal black tie event.

Community Chair Anne Sampson asked for and received approval to help fund extra coaching for Brandon Lowe with The National Youth Choir of Scotland consisting of a one-week residential course where members get to work with renowned choral director Christopher Bell.

The speaker for this week was Jilly Guild from Foodbank Glenrothes which is a project founded by local churches and community groups. We had supported the Foodbank a few year ago and Jilly was coming back to give us an update. She advised us that at the beginning of the year they had seen a drop of 31% in the issuing of vouchers the biggest drop in the UK but unfortunately over the past couple of months they had seen a big increase again as the welfare legislation kicks in. They say that people can’t wait 6 weeks to get benefits and thus they turn to the foodbanks for help not only food but electrical items. The foodbank is part of The Trussell Trust’s network of 428 foodbanks, working to tackle food poverty and hunger in our local communities, as well as across the UK. The Foodbank Network was founded in 2004 after four years of developing the original foodbank based in Salisbury. Since then The Trussell Trust has helped communities work together to launch foodbanks nationwide in a wide range of towns and cities. In 2015/16, The Trussell Trust’s Foodbank Network provided 1,109,309 three-day emergency food supplies and support to UK people in crisis. Of these, over 400,000 went to children. As a network, they want to see more people helped out of crisis and fewer people needing foodbanks in the future. That’s why The Trussell Trust and local foodbanks are working together to develop new ways to help people out of crisis through programmes like More Than Food. They don’t think anyone in our community should have to face going hungry. That’s why they provide three days’ nutritionally balanced emergency food and support to local people who are referred to them in crisis. Your gift of financial support, time, business partnership and food can make a real difference as they look for people to join in fundraising such as their 200 Club, they have Clothes sales and also had a Christmas market, volunteering their time, Donating money, Partnering them and or Donating Food. The Glenrothes Foodbank can be found at Caledonia House, Pentland Park Saltire Centre inGlenrothes.

The Rotary vote of thanks was given by Jim Boyd.

This week’s meeting on Thursday 13th April 2017 will be a lunch time meeting to be held at the Gilvenbank Hotel. please meet 12.45pm for starting at 12.55pm On reception, will be Archie Lawrie and Peter May, when the speaker will be Bob Garmory speaking about the Glenrothes International Airport.