A FRONTLINE community project has warned calls for emergency food parcels have doubled since temperatures plummeted this week - stretching their supplies to the limit.

Belville Community Garden, one of the first organisations in Inverclyde to recognise the need to tackle food poverty, says that households in the east end of Greenock are facing the worst winter yet as they make the choice between eating and heating.

It comes as Ofgem announce a 1.2 per cent rise in the energy cap pushing bills up even further after Christmas.

READ MORE: Number of pensioners using Inverclyde foodbank doubles

The Belville team told the Tele that without a recent donation from the Greenock Rotary Club to their food store, they wouldn't be able to even meet the demand.

Manager Sally Clough, who heads up the anti poverty and environmental project which is now celebrating ten years, said: "As soon as the temperatures dropped the calls for food parcels doubled immediately.

"We send out about 15 to 30 parcels a week normally. But people are facing real hard choices. Families cannot make their money stretch any further.

"There are so many people who have never been in this position in their lives. You have to pay rent, heat your home and eat. But when things get tight something has to go and people cannot afford food.

"I have heard so many people say it is going to be a hard and a lean Christmas.

"To be honest demand for our food parcels increased during covid and that demand has never really went away.

"But if it wasn't for donations like the recent one from the Greenock Rotary, we would be struggling to meet demand."

Sue Harris and Michelle Markey (Image: George Munro) Community food worker Sue Harris co-ordinates the food collections and the emergency parcels.

She said: "We have a real mix of people from families to pensioners who come to us for help. The choice between heating and eating is always there."

As well as coming to the aid of local people in emergencies, the community project also run a food larder using collections from local stores, which are then redistributed.

Belville Community Gardens, set up on land where the landmark high rise flats once stood, runs outdoor activities and wellbeing groups every day of the week.

They also run drop in classes in their Belville Street premises and were the first project in Inverclyde to run 'soup and blether' drops in and set up a community garden.

The ground-breaking project also partnered with local stores to make sure that food which would otherwise be thrown out at the end of the day was not wasted.