Caithness Foodbank planning new base at former Wick BB hall site
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Community councillors in Wick have been told of plans for Caithness Foodbank to move to a new base in the town.
The former Boys' Brigade hall near the bottom of Henrietta Street will be knocked down to make way for a "sustainable" replacement building.
Currently the food bank operates in Wick from the former Carnegie library in Sinclair Terrace, and in Thurso from premises in Princes Street. The Thurso centre will be unaffected.
Husband-and-wife Grant and Pat Ramsay, chairperson and vice-chairperson respectively of Caithness Foodbank, outlined the plans for the new Wick base when giving a talk to the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council on Monday night.
They also revealed how demand has practically doubled over the course of a year.
Mrs Ramsay explained that Caithness Foodbank now owns the former Boys' Brigade hall, which is thought to date back to the early 1970s.
“Initially we thought we'd do a wee bit of refurbishment, then we thought we'd do more of a reconstruction to make it a bit net-zero," she said. "But our recent plans are that we are going to demolish and rebuild.
“It will be exactly the same footprint, not changing the position of it at all, but the bottom line is that it's actually going to be a much more sustainable building.
“We're at the stage of looking at plans, looking at funding, and we're hoping we are going to get full funding for it to take it forward.”
Mr Ramsay reported that in 2022/23 Caithness Foodbank fed 1609 people and handed out 9.2 tonnes of food.
In 2023/24 these figures rose to 2800 people being fed and the amount of food distributed reaching 18.9 tonnes.
"The total amount bought by ourselves is 20 per cent and the rest is donated or from supermarket donations," he said.
The two centres are open from noon to 2.30pm on Tuesdays and Fridays, manned by what Mrs Ramsay called a "merry band of volunteers".
They work with a number of referral agencies and one of these should be the first point of contact for clients.
Mrs Ramsay explained that Citizens Advice is the main referral agency. It provides the “full package” for those in need of support, she said, from budgeting to benefits-related enquiries. Other agencies include Home-Start Caithness and Pulteneytown People's Project.
She said: “We would never turn anyone away. But we would advise them that there is a procedure for a referral to the food bank through the agency that you're currently working with.
“We would always signpost them to where they should be going, to make sure that they are getting the full support.”
Mr and Mrs Ramsay had brought along a box showing a typical selection of items that would make up a food parcel for a single person to last about three days, including breakfast cereal, rice and a variety of tinned goods.
She said the volunteers are always willing to give a "helping hand" or "a little bit of TLC" but added: "It's not limitless – they can't come for evermore to the food bank."
She also pointed out: "We're a very, very caring community – I always say that about Caithness. But I do feel that we're sometimes very quick to judge folk and we're trained not to be judgmental."
Caithness Foodbank is part of the national Trussell Trust network and Mr and Mrs Ramsay have been involved for more than 10 years.
"When I got involved in the food bank I thought we'd be doing it for five years maximum," Mrs Ramsay said.
"It's hard to think that people are struggling as much and quite often it's working families... Something has cropped up and they've got nothing in reserve and nothing to fall back on."
In an interview in the run-up to Christmas, Mr Ramsay highlighted the big increase in demand over the past year. He said at the time: "There is real poverty."
