Breadline Voices: 'It shouldn’t matter where you're born you should have the same access to food'

Caitlin McGlynn is a development officer at youth empowerment charity Young Movers (YoMo) in Glasgow. It runs projects for people aged between 12 and 25 which promote their right to be involved in decision-making processes that impact their lives

"With everything that went on with Covid, like a lot of youth organisations, we went from delivering youth clubs five days a week to going out delivering food parcels.

"That was coming to an end, it was going back to focusing on youth work, but now with the cost of living crisis we’re still delivering a lot of food vouchers and signposting families to try and get them more help with rising fuel, electricity, and food prices.

"Pre-Covid we were working with about 60 young people and their families and now we’re up to about 120 plus… demand for our services has skyrocketed. 

"I love my job but it’s not a nice thing to see so many young people and families really struggling with just everyday costs.

"Lots more children turning up hungry and maybe haven’t eaten all day at school. There’s probably more, they won’t necessarily tell you.

"A big thing for us is that all of our youth sessions, no matter what’s going on, we are always providing food. Pre-Covid we’d provided a little bit of fruit and some crisps and that would be all. Now it’s almost getting to the stage of a full meal at every event, and we need to find the funds to provide that.

"We need a proper living wage, so people get paid better for the work they are doing.

"The people that are struggling that we’re working with, they're not families that aren’t working. It’s households where mum and dad are working. Sometimes if there’s a 16-year-old or someone older in the house they’ve also got a job.

"Scotland does seem a bit ahead of England in terms of what support it is offering, which is amazing for us, but there is still more to be done.

"It shouldn’t matter what country children are born in out of the four nations they should have the same access to food."

This is part of Breadline Voices, a series from The Food Foundation highlighting the realities faced by millions of families plunged into food and fuel poverty as food prices reach a 40-year high.