On a mission to help the homeless

Homeless charity Glasgow City Mission will benefit from food parcels worth £2,629.89 and donations of £2,221.53.

Spokesman Graham Steven told The Extra: “These donations will help us serve the 200 people we help every single day.

“Our clients who benefit will be those who cannot put food on the table.

“It is a special treat for them to be able to benefit from a really good meal at a time when they needed it most.”

The cash raised will help GCM fund its day to day activities, which target the root causes of homelessness and poverty, such as art, IT and back to work programmes.

It will also help fund the crucial evening drop-in service which operates five nights a week.

Whole Foods Giffnock manager Darren Campbell added: “Both our customers and our staff were extremely enthusiastic and willing to help Glasgow City Mission.

“This charity resonates well as it is one which is local to Glasgow, and our customers can see the benefits first hand.”

The Giffnock store encouraged customers to purchase a food parcel that was then given to the charity to distribute to the city’s homeless in time for Christmas.

Each food parcel contained pasta, tinned food, tea bags and even a bag of giant chocolate buttons.

Last year, requests for emergency food parcels increased ten fold.

A total of eight Whole Foods employees spent a day volunteering at the Glasgow City Mission centre, where they helped to package the donations into food parcels.

Darren added: “The jobs the volunteers do at the centre are hugely time-consuming.

“By helping, we were able to free up volunteers to do their crucial day-to-day activities.”

Fundraising manager Graham believes the help of the community is crucial to the charity.

He added: “Without people like the team at Whole Foods and the southside community pulling together to donate funds, Glasgow City Mission would be unable to provide services which are crucial to those who use them.

“The charity strikes a chord with locals as it is a problem which people in Glasgow can see first hand every single day.

“Hopefully, those who donated or volunteered their time can see they have made a huge difference to a lot of lives at a time when theywere needed.”