THE opening of a Cowdenbeath food bank is drawing closer and it could be open for the winter after a steering group was set up to move plans along.

A meeting was held last week in the potential home for the facility, at the Fountain Rooms on Broad Street, with many Cowdenbeath residents attending in order to find out more about the idea and help support taking the project forward.

John Drylie, who started the Dunfermline food bank, has been instrumental in setting up plans for the Cowdenbeath site, which the team hopes will be open in time for Christmas. There was lots of support for the new Cowdenbeath project at the meeting, with 13 names being put forward for the steering group. There is still a lot of work to be done before the site can open, including getting the building ready, training the volunteers and getting the warehouse shelved and stocked. The team are planning to run training nights closer to the opening, with mentors from Dunfermline giving support to the Cowdenbeath team until they can run the food bank by themselves.

Over 300 people have attended the Dunfermline foodbank from the Cowdenbeath area since it opened, highlighting the need for such a facility. Speaking to the Times earlier this month, Mr Drylie said that the project was “something that can help people at a time of deep crisis in their personal lives.”