Broke Not Broken – Tackling the effects of poverty. Local independent food bank for Kinross and Kinross-shire.

The Beacon,
St Paul’s Church,
The Muirs, Kinross

Opening Hours
Tuesday 10am-2pm or Thursday 10am-2pm

Projects

Kinross Food Bank

The food bank started life collecting food in the rain under a gazebo and storing it in a garage. Years on, we have a premises in The Beacon at St Paul’s Church, and a great partnership with local shops and the community who donate and collect food for us. Our greatest hope was that we would be made redundant within weeks. That is still our goal.

Garden Project

What began as a way to provide fresh food for our clients by overhauling a patch of overgrown ground behind The Beacon, turned into a project of its own with unexpected benefits. Offering the chance to work in the Garden to our clients resulted in a kind of outdoor therapy. Each year we build on the produce offered and encourage more clients to gain skills and confidence by working in the garden.

Cookery courses

Each year in conjunction with Pat Doran from Loch Leven Community Campus, we run cookery classes for our clients. These focus on healthy eating, eating on a budget and cooking from scratch. At the end of the class, the participants sit together and eat the meal they have prepared. As well as cookery skills, the participants also make valued friendships.

Local Advice Hub

We started the Local Advice hub with our advice partners in 2019. After working with clients for years we began to see a way we could divert them from ever having to access a food bank by helping them get the right advice before they found themselves in a crisis situation. Many services had been centralised to Perth so we began inviting groups and services with outreach workers to attend an advice hub. Based at Loch Leven Health Centre, it operates every Friday.

Kids’ Club

Through ongoing contact with our clients we identified a need to help families during the holidays and with extra curricular activities. Throughout term time we help with classes and clubs. In the holidays we run Summer Away days, which centre around healthy picnics. We have partnerships with Saints in the Community and Perth Theatre to offer new experiences to local families.

Counselling

Mental health issues are often involved in the circumstances of many of our clients. Accessing counselling can be difficult as many are centralised to Perth. We offer a person centred counselling service to clients, located locally. Covering bereavement issues, depression, anxiety and other subjects, the feedback is positive and is something we intend to grow and continue.

Referrals

If you or someone you know is in need, or facing a crisis, then we can help.
The food bank and other projects run on a referral scheme. Our referral agents are the following:

Kinross Primary School 01577 867272
Health Visitors 01577 862112
Doctors at local Health Centre 01577 862112
Women’s Aid 01738 635404
Housing Officer 01738 635404
Social Worker
Welfare Rights Team 01738 476900

If you speak to one of these groups, they can issue you with a food bank voucher and we will take it from there. You can bring it along during opening hours and sit and have a cup of tea or coffee while we put together your food parcel. Tell us any dietary requirements, or if you have pets or children and we can tailor it accordingly. We can then find out if you would benefit from any of our other projects.

Donating

We rely on the generosity of our community. Donations of money time and food are all gratefully received. We take great care to ensure funds are allocated carefully and take all food donations equally as seriously.

To donate money contact: admin@brokenotbroken.org

To donate food: here is a list that you can download and print out to take shopping with you. Drop-off point is at Kinross Sainsbury’s, open 8am- 10pm every day.

To donate your time, as a volunteer, contact our volunteer co-ordinator at volunteer@brokenotbroken.org