The foodbank in Benarty has warned that they do not have enough volunteers.

Benarty Foodbank, which is part of Dunfermline Foodbank, is struggling to recruit enough volunteers to enable them to open safely. This warning comes just before the foodbank opens its doors on Sunday, November5, to allow members of the public to hand in donations.

This is in addition to the foodbank’s normal hours where members of the public are always welcome to drop off donations. Currently, it is open three times a week on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 4-6pm.

Susan Stuart, a volunteer at the foodbank, said: “Quite a few of us do try and only help maybe twice a month but we’re having to do it a wee bit more often, three or four times a month to keep us open. We’ve also had some extra volunteers from Dunfermline come to help us from the main foodbank.”

Unfortunately, there has been one occasion when the foodbank just had too few volunteers to keep its doors open.

“We had one day where we had to close because we didn’t have enough volunteers to open," said Susan. “We lost a few volunteers who had to isolate during COVID and then maybe just with age or illness didn’t come back so our volunteer numbers have severely reduced over the last few years.”

The charity has asked anyone who is interested in volunteering opportunities to visit the foodbank to speak to some of their current volunteers and to collect a volunteer form.

The charity also has trolleys in Asda, Tesco and the local Co-op where people can drop in donations just after they have done their grocery shop.

The foodbank is always looking for donations of long-life cans or packaged goods and UHT milk.

Benarty Foodbank is located at Brag Enterprises, Crosshill.