Over 16,500 receive anti-poverty support

MORE than 16,500 people living in Nithsdale have directly benefitted from a fund set up to tackle poverty and inequalities, writes Marc McLean. And Dumfries Provost Tracey Little insisted these stats are a “stark reminder” of how many families and individuals locally are still struggling on a daily basis through this prolonged cost of living crisis. Tackling poverty has become a priority for Dumfries and Galloway Council in recent years, and councillors last week discussed how grant funding for mitigating hardships was being spent in the Nithsdale area. A report detailed how nearly £80,000 was split between ten community projects supporting residents who have been struggling to put food on the table. Cllr Little said: “It’s a stark reminder to members that people across our communities continue to deal daily with the effects of the cost of living crisis and the tremendous effort our third sector are doing to mitigate this for our residents.” Meanwhile, it also emerged that the First Base Agency, which has provided thousands of food parcels each year for over 20 years, is returning a portion of its £10,000 grant. The charity had updated the council with new figures, confirming that they had delivered fewer food parcels in Nithsdale this year than originally anticipated. The final figure was 8000 food parcels, rather than 14,500, and therefore the organisation agreed to return £2209 from their £10,000 grant to the council.