Social supermarket to tackle food insecurity​

The community supermarket will offer discounted food

Scotland's first social supermarket is to open in Glasgow after GCU research revealed only a fraction of those most in need use food banks.

The new store, run by the charity Good Food Scotland, will offer heavily discounted food, a cafe, and community facilities in Nitshill, on the south side of the city.

The move comes after researchers from GCU's Scottish Poverty and Inequality Research Unit were asked to carry out a feasibility study and found that although 37% of local residents were worried about running out of food only 8% had utilised a food bank.

One in five of those surveyed, who were in full-time employment, said they had eaten less food in the last 12 months and 50% of those out of work reported skipping meals.

Four major supermarkets have pledged to support the initiative by donating excess stock when Threehills Community Supermarket opens this summer.

Professor John McKendrick, co-director of SPIRU at GCU, who led the study, said: “Social supermarkets have the potential to overcome the core problems associated with food aid.

"They are more commonplace in continental European nations and constitute a novel approach to tackling food insecurity

“The problem might not be that people are not eating, the problem might be elsewhere in other bills they can’t meet.

"That’s why social supermarkets are really important because they are reaching out to a broader population.”

Pauline Gilgallon, development officer for Good Food Scotland, added: “Food banks do amazing work and they help so many people, but there are a lot of people wanting to move on from them.

“From talking to the community, people want the choice."

  • Read the feasibility study - Keeping the baby when we throw out the bathwater: social supermarkets for community development, published in the Community Development Journal - https://bit.ly/3ucb8P
  • Find out more - Good Food Scotland