FOR every person who uses a food bank in Glasgow almost another four face going hungry, a study has revealed.
In deprived parts of the city one in every 25 households have sought emergency food rations, according to the research, but the authors paint food banks as a poor solution to the problem.
While their survey of people living in impoverished neighbourhoods found 4.2 per cent had used food banks, 17.3 per cent said they occasionally or frequently struggled to meet the cost of food.
Professor Ade Kearns, who is leading the long term Go Well research project focused on some of Glasgow's poorest communities, said: "We have a shameful issue that has been carrying on for a few years, sort of out of sight of mainstream society."
The insight into how many people are finding it hard to pay for meals was drawn from interviews, for the Go Well project, with 3614 residents living in deprived parts of Glasgow in 2015.
Participants were asked how frequently they found it difficult to afford a list of household expenses including food, rent, clothes and council tax.
They were also asked if they had used food banks. Of those who said it was difficult to afford food, 15 per cent had turned to food banks rising to 22 per cent among those who frequently struggled to fund meals.
Professor Kearns said: "The problem of food insecurity is much larger than treatment by food banks. Only one in five of those people who say they frequently cannot pay for food is using a food bank."
The researchers conducted in depth interviews with some of the survey participants. One parent, who worked part-time, described feeling shame standing in a queue waiting for food, saying they never would have imagined being in that situation two years earlier.
Others felt they could not accept charity - a man in his fifties said he used to give money to good causes such as the Red Cross and it would be degrading to use a food bank. Two men with addictions suggested they did not deserve to receive such help.
There were also people who suspected banks would not hand out healthy food. One refugee with three children said: "What you get in food bank? You get all tin cans, I don't want canned foods, we don't eat canned foods. It's not healthy. Better be starving than eat canned foods."
Professor Kearns noted food banks took an element of control away from people who relied on them. He said: "Someone else decides whether to direct you to a food bank and someone else decides what to give you when you go. That doesn't really sound like a way of providing a service for a very basic level of need like food."
Mary Anne MacLeod, author of the food banks paper - which has been released by Glasgow Centre for Population Health to coincide with Challenge Poverty Week, said she was surprised by the number of people struggling to afford food and the wide range of crises they had suffered.
People affected by welfare reforms, job losses, serious health problems, bereavements and shifting home were all more likely to turn to food banks or find it difficult to fund meals.
Ms MacLeod said: "Food banks are not the ideal solution to the problem. This is obviously a small scale study, but it is highlighting a disconnect between the proportion of people who go to food banks and the number of people who struggle to afford food."
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