In April Trussell Trust revealed they gave out 170,625 food parcels in Scotland to "people in Crisis" in 2017/8 but we must at least double this figure as the Trussell Trust "branded" food banks are less than half the number of food banks that have popped up across Scotland.
As Trussell Trust run less than half the food banks across Scotland, this means at least 350,000 food parcels were given out in Scotland in 2017/18 and if each food parcel is to feed a family of four that means up to 1.365 million men, women and children in Scotland ate from food parcels last year - that's 26% of the population.
This represents a 2880% increase since 2011 on the number of Scots eating from food parcels and means up to 26% of the nation, for at least 3 days, had no fresh meat, no fresh vegetables, no fresh fish, no fresh milk or dairy products and no fresh bread as these are not part of the Trussell Trust and alternative food banks food parcels.
Before 2013 if a social worker was told a family gave their children no fresh food for 3 days they would be right round to investigate, but now it is Scottish Government and COSLA policy, that's all right then?
Scottish Government & COSLA
We have no way of knowing if the figure is even higher because the Scottish Government and COSLA refuse to gather any figures from each food bank in Scotland, to ensure there are no government figures, to deliberately disguise the scale of the problem.
While the SNP government blames all this on Westminster - once again it is what they DON'T say that is important.
The Scottish Government is totally to blame for this scandal as they were warned repeatedly, from August 2011, that Westminster planned to devolve the DWP Social Fund to councils in England and the government in Scotland, with a recommendation dump the poor on councils to spread the DWP social fund (and all responsibility) across councils and just send people for food parcels at your own discretion instead.
MP's and MSP's from every single political party in Scotland knew full well this would mean millions being sent for food parcels across the UK if they did not give small interest free crisis loans in their replacement system, as the DWP did, once the DWP Social Fund was devolved.
I started lobbying MSP's with the information from my research from Jan 2011 and forwarded the article I wrote "Well Trousered Philanthropists, Tory Party Chums and Food Parcels for the Poor", in August 2011 - giving every MSP over 18 months to ensure Scots did not get sent for food parcels when they took over the fund.
Despite intense lobbying of every political party in Scotland, well in advance of the Westminster government devolving the DWP social fund to Scotland from April 2013 the SNP government opted to take Cameron's advice and dump the poor on every council point blank refusing to centralise responsibility for the poor (unlike police) for the first time since the second world war.
Worse the SNP government official guidance stated no council could give any help to anyone sanctioned by the DWP from their new Scottish Welfare Fund with their Scottish Welfare Fund guidance notes stating the reason was the Scottish Government
"did not want to undermine the DWP sanction regime"
An SNP government policy which ran from April 2013 until March 2016.
Meanwhile, SNP MP Mhairi Black was on Breakfast TV saying sanctions were terrible - to promote herself nationally using her private members bill regarding sanctions - while she said nothing of her own SNP government in Scotland denying everyone sanctioned by the DWP any help from their Scottish Welfare Fund as official SNP government policy.
Mhairi Black in her two and a half minute video claims the Scottish Parliament has taken a different route to the Westminster parliament leaving people with nothing and people facing a postcode lottery- yet what she did NOT say is her SNP party policy is to refuse millions help from their Scottish Welfare Fund, especially those sanctioned who have nothing. - no postcode lottery as everyone sanctioned affected - which just adds to the Westminster cruelty.
This is the same SNP MP who voters turned on and branded a liar as a mum is barred from sick kids' hospital ward closure meeting after Mhairi Black's constituents got the seats while she also tried to claim her office arranged the meeting and she had invited SNP Minister Shona Robertson to come to the meeting - with angry demonstrators stating to her face neither statement was true and she was a liar.
It seems no matter the party badge politicians when confronted either lie to your face or do the next best thing when promoting themselves and their party- cover up the information they don't want you to know (as people in England are unlikely to know SNP Scottish government policy - a fact SNP MP's like Mhairi Black rely on when talking to their UK audience.
"We created the Scottish Welfare Fund (SWF) to provide a safety net for people on low incomes. It is a national scheme that helps Scottish households in need.
Notice, like Mhairi Black, what they do NOT say, Westminster provides most of the money and SNP only set it up because Westminster devolved it to them in 2013.
It is a favourite trick of politicians when paltry sums are being spent to lump them together for lots of years to get the figure to look as good as possible - the SNP figures are a national scandal.
Between April 2013 and September 2017 the Scottish Government claims their Scottish Welfare Fund
"helped 275,690 individual households, with awards totaling more than £148 million . A third of those households were families with children, while just over half were single-person households with no children."
But, again, what they don't say is just how many people they refused to help 1,278,666 households in the same period. To get the full picture we have to base all figures on those from the Trussell Trust because the SNP goverment refuse to gather the official figures.
Here are the Trussell Trust figures from 2011 for the amount of food parcels their independent business franchises, run by churches, staffed by volunteers, gave out in Scotland (rising from 5,726 food parcels given out in 2011/2 to 170,623 food parcels given out in 2017/18
If we multiply each figure by 4 (average 2 parents and 2 children eating from each food parcel) then the number of people eating from food parcels each year translates to the charts below - as Trussell Trust run less than half the food banks in Scotland to get the figure for all Scotland we need to double that figure to the nearest thousand.
Now the SNP government is totally responsible for all of this - because my research, provided to MSP's 18 months before the DWP social fund was devolved - if the SNP government did not continue to issue crisis loans when the DWP social fund was devolved then millions would be eating from food parcels - and that is precisely what has happened in Scotland.
Despite lobbying MSP's for 18 months to demand a national centralised system is set up and crisis loans continued to be issued the SNP government point blank refused to continue this vital DWP interest free small loan service - pushing the poor into the clutches of loan sharks and food bank franchise businesses and churches - taking Scotland back to the Victorian era.
The SNP government refused to continue with a centralised loan and grant service, using the excuse it would be too complex and costly for them - as a computer programmer I can tell you it would have been very straightforward and easy and relatively cheap to set up.
What is even more damning is the DWP social fund was only 0.00068% of the DWP budget and the crisis loan element ensured anyone could get an interest free small loan (avg £80) which they could pay back over a long term in small installments which ensured this fund was self sustaining - it cost us nothing but admin fees - a system that worked tremendously since the 1980's in the DWP - where in England 2.69 million crisis loans were issued in 2009/10 alone with the DWP stating around 2014 that more was now being paid back than was being paid out.
This system also ensured everyone could always afford to buy fresh food locally - now, instead the low paid, sick, pensioners and pregnant women have to go miles to food banks (that are very often only open part time) and then carry heavy bags of messages on public transport for long distances (if they have the bus fare) because food banks are not as local as the shop (and don't have any fresh food either).
And while the SNP government boast they helped helped 275,690 individual households between 2013 and 2017, what they don't say is in the same period they refused to help 1,278,666 households.
This, while at the same time SNP government decided to give £millions in grants to the churches and charities to prop up the food bank businesses because they have no income - despite the fact we donate the food free - so instead of lending those £millions to people with no or little income at crisis points, to allow them to keep their dignity at no cost to the nation.
SNP CHOSE to use that money to prop up a degrading food bank system, designed by the Trussell Trust who worked with Tory party benefits policy writers to expand their business for themselves - a business that relies on refusing people help for their business growth.
The Trussell Trust - the benefits for them.
The Trussell Trust claim on their website
"The Trussell Trust runs a network of over 400 foodbanks, giving emergency food and support to people in crisis across the UK, where thirteen million people live below the poverty line. In the last year we gave 1,332,952 three day emergency food supplies to people in crisis."
The Trussell Trust does NOT run any food banks in Scotland or across the UK except ONE in England. Despite this the Trussell Trust website states
The Trussell Trust is like McDonalds, it is a franchise business which target churches to go into business with them by running their own franchise - where churches must sign a business contract and pay the Trussell Trust an up front £1,500 fee and another £360 to operate their food bank business franchise with the contract stating the Church MUST use their "Trussell Trust" brand, but, just like McDonald's franchises - with the Church food bank business is not operated by Trussell trust but by volunteers - as each franchise is a business run by the church.
The Trussell Trust business strategy is to only target churches - as people trust churches.
And it is the Trussell Trust who appears to be reaping the benefits as since the DWP Social fund was devolved to councils in England and the parliament in Scotland Trussell Trust income has went up 10 fold from £680k in 2013 to between £6.6 and £6.8 million a year - despite the fact Trussell Trust only operate one food bank where all food is donated free.
The marketing beauty of running a franchise business is the nation gets the impression the Trussell Trust operate the food bank network when they don't - meaning they get all the credit.
Which gives them the other benefit of gaining corporate "partners" with their website revealing they are
Asda, Tesco, Unilever, Waitrose, Co-Op Bank, Delta Airlines, Scotland's First Bus, John Lewis, Network Rail, New York Bakery Co, NPower, Sales Force (a US cloud computing company headquartered in San Francisco, California), Sodexo, F&F (Tesco Clothing) and IFCO (a global provider of repackaging solutions for fresh food).
with the website going on to say
"We would also like to express our gratitude to the following companies who, whilst not being official Corporate Partners, have helped and continue to help The Trussell Trust and our foodbanks in a variety of ways, from local fundraising to gifts in kind to volunteering.
We couldn’t support our foodbank network without your generous support. Thank you!Amey, Blackwell Books, British Airways, BT, Cisco, Dooa, Enterprise Car Hire, Inspire Motivate Engage, Kelloggs, Kuehne Nagel, Natural Capital Partners, Pureology, Woolley & Wallis."
The Benefits for Supermarkets and Food Companies Too
And it's not just the Trussell Trust getting all the benefits from government policy to line up millions for food parcels now as supermarkets set up Trussell Trust boxes asking us to buy not only our family's dinner but dinner for other families too (on top of paying 12% each week on national insurance).
While supermarkets benefit from increased sales to fill these boxes to stock food banks - (as local shops all lose business to supermarkets because the Scottish welfare fund refuses to issue small crisis loan to allow people to buy fresh food locally) - they encourage people to buy and donate by saying they will match donations ton for ton.
But what do the supermarkets NOT say - supermarkets can claim 100% tax rebate on every single bashed tin, near out of date and slow selling stock they want to get rid off if they donate it to Trussell Trust - while the shoppers who donate the food free and increase their profits do NOT get a tax rebate on our donations.
Kellogg's donated millions of breakfast cereals (were they poor sellers or near out of date) to the Trussell Trust (despite the fact there is no fresh milk in Trussell Trust food parcels) which allows Kelloggs to claim 100% tax rebate on those donations of goods too.
in Scotland, they all get the benefits, except the people, as SNP refused to set up a centralised Social Welfare Fund on the back of 26% of the Scottish nation eating from food parcels to feed the Trussell Trust Business Franchise operations and supermarkets.
And next year and every year that figure of 1.365 million eating from food parcels will increase again and again and again - and soon you will find yourself in that position, as we are all just one wage away from the SNP not giving us any help too.