Food Train (North Ayrshire)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 18 January 2018.

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Photo of Kenneth Gibson Kenneth Gibson Scottish National Party

The First Minister will be aware that North Ayrshire health and social care partnership has decided to cease its £75,000 a year grant to the Food Train from 31 March, and that 172 vulnerable, elderly people, 43 per cent of whom are 85 or older, will be denied a vital service that allows them to stay in their own homes rather than, in some instances, being taken into care at a cost of £26,869 per person per year. Housebound constituents have told me that the volunteer who delivers their food is often the only person they speak to each week. Does the First Minister agree that the decision to cease funding the Food Train in North Ayrshire is a penny-wise-pound-foolish decision that should be urgently reconsidered and reversed?

Photo of Nicola Sturgeon Nicola Sturgeon Scottish National Party

The Food Train does a lot of good work. The Scottish Government has provided funding in previous years to pilot the Food Train, which has been expanded to a number of local authority areas. Responsibility for the commissioning and delivery of services lies with the North Ayrshire health and social care partnership, but I will ask the Minister for Public Health and Sport to examine the situation further. I am sure that we all want to recognise the important contribution made by the volunteers who have been delivering the Food Train service so successfully in North Ayrshire.