Start Up Stirling Reaches 1,000,000 Meal Donation Milestone
Start Up Stirling has reached a significant milestone in the charity's history. By the end of 2025, we had distributed 1,044,958 meals via our Crisis Food Service in the last 8 years.
We have been providing food support for the past 12 years. Initially, this began with one small foodbank in a church hall. The service has now expanded, and we now co-ordinate 2 city centre foodbanks, 6 satellite rural ones, plus a rural delivery service to reach outlying villages and towns each week. When the service began back in October 2012, it helped 12 families. By 2025, this had risen to providing 143,500 meals and supporting 3,722 people, 1,244 of whom were children. Start Up Stirling is now the largest independent provider of crisis food in the Stirling Council area.
Andrew Ireland, Chief Operating Officer, commented, "1 million meals is a massive achievement for the charity. It shows how much the people in the Stirling Council area and beyond have supported us through the years. This has allowed us to make an impact on the lives of the people who continue to need our services. It is also testament to the support that our volunteers have provided, to make this a reality.”
We rely on the food that we receive in our donation stations across the Stirling Council area to provide our Crisis food services, everywhere from supermarkets, local shops, shopping centres, banks, community centres, schools and churches. However, we have seen a drop in our food donations over the past 2 years, not because people aren’t as generous, but the amount that they can afford to donate has reduced, due to rising food and fuel costs.
Over the festive period, over 1,000 people received crisis food and Christmas dinners, as well as providing gifts for children and young people. With 2026 beginning with some very cold weather, we anticipate that the Crisis Food Service will be busier than ever.
We would really appreciate it if you could donate any extra food that you bought for Christmas and didn’t need, for use at our foodbanks over the Winter. Every tin of soup, beans, rice pudding, tea bags or breakfast cereal makes a big difference to the people that need our help, and helps us to ensure that no-one who is referred to our services goes hungry.