THE ORGANISERS behind a city centre soup kitchen have told how their service has hit a capacity "breaking point". 

Volunteers at Homeless Project Scotland are desperately hunting for a new home as they warn there is "no room to move".

The Argyle Street facility has had to strip back some of its services in order to cope with surging demand. 

Glasgow Times:

Chairman Colin McInness, said: “We’ve hit capacity, we’re completely full with no room to move. 

“We can't facilitate the number of volunteers we need at the unit. It is putting a huge strain on them to help others.

“Due to this, we’ve had to reduce a number of provisions that we hand out, such as clothes donation packs. We've been left unable to deliver branches of our service to those that desperately need it."

The facility - which once ran every Friday night - now operates three times per week.

Glasgow Times:

On average, around 1300 meals are distributed every week to those in need. 

Colin added: “The demand is constantly growing. In particular, we’ve noticed it tenfold over the past couple of weeks.

“We used to receive two to three requests every week for clothes packs. Now, we are getting around 70 to 80 per day. We just don't have the space for this or for other services that we are hoping to expand on.

“Demand has increased so much that we have had to increase a token system at the soup kitchen so as those coming to us get three to four meals per day."
And only last week, organisers feared that they were going to run out of food. 

"We have a contingency plan in place in case that happens, but for the first time, we really thought we were going to have to use it", said Colin.

"We need a new home so this doesn't happen again. We’re helping much more people than we ever expected."

Glasgow Times:

Colin is appealing for landlords who may be able to help the charity's situation to come forward. 

He is particularly asking for those with large vacant retail units, shops, office blocks or warehouse space to come forward.

He added: "It is very important that our service stays in the city centre. Most of our users come from nearby hotels and hostels so we don’t want to put financial pressure on them if we were to move somewhere else."

Anyone who wishes to help should email office@homelessprojectscotland.org