A new year may have dawned, but there seems to be little likelihood in a let up in the demand for the services of Buckie Community Hub.
The volunteer-run facility, situated on the town’s East Church Street, celebrated its second birthday at the tail end of last year.
BAF chairman Gordon McDonald. Picture: Daniel Forsyth
While some may believe that the cost of living crisis has begun to ease, the Hub has remained as busy as ever helping some of the most vulnerable people in the local community. This has ranged from helping with food parcels and vouchers to signposting people to a range of agencies who may be able to provide specialist assistance.
Looking back at 2024, Gordon McDonald, the chairman of the Hub’s parent organisation Buckie Area Forum (BAF), said: “We’re seeing more and more people coming in, possibly because we’re more known, because a lot of people at the beginning weren’t quite sure exactly what it was we did.
“We’ve built up a reputation now of where you can come and actually have a chat with your peers about what you need and we’ll try make sure that if you’re needing professional help, that we’ll get that for you and direct you to the right people.
“In terms of the age of those coming in, it’s right across the spectrum. A lot of young families in particular over the winter that have been coming in, they’ve been struggling. Obviously the elderly is also another very vulnerable group and the fleeces, hot water bottles and the other things that we hand out, including winter jackets, have been going really well.
“We actually put a lot of food parcels out as well as food vouchers.
The true spirit of Christmas – kids from Cluny Primary hand over the food they collected to Buckie Community Hub.
“Over Christmas demand was up compared to the previous year and we found that this time around there was more demand from the younger age group whereas before it was mainly the elderly who came to us. Perhaps it is better now that we can identify those in need more. We’re more in tune with the schools and some of the other agencies, like the health service and social work, and they know to send folk down to us. We’re getting more work to do in that sense whereas in the past we may have not been in contact with all the people who are really struggling.”
Looking ahead to 2025, Mr McDonald said he could not see any realistic prospect of circumstances improving markedly for many of the people the Hub help.
He continued: “Like I said, the more folk know about us, the more they’ll use us, but basically there’s certainly no sign that the cost of living crisis is over by a long chalk.
“It’s coming in different forms. We had the mortgage problems earlier on, and that was bringing in a certain crowd of folk. However, the general situation just keeps on continuing. We do see some folk who are regularly struggling, because they’re down there and they can’t get out the rut.
“We’re really beginning to see the effects of the cuts to the Winter Fuel Payments to a great many pensioners.
The Hub could potentially takeover the former Bank of Scotland building on East Church Street in Buckie if funding bids prove successful.
“Mental health is a big one, it’s a far bigger issue than I thought it was going to be when we started. I hadn’t appreciated the scale of it. There’s a lot of issues on that. It’s low level, obviously not the high level stuff, but it’s enough to knock families and everything else off the road.
“Other than that, we’re going into things that we never used to go into. That’s why we’re actually even looking to get a new premises, if we get the grants that we’re after. We’re not just a place people can get a cuppa, important though that can be.
“One thing we’ve been finding is that a lot of the professional services have had cutbacks and are really struggling. They’re all going back into their own shells. we’ve good relations with them but they’re really under a lot of pressure.”
Since Moray Council withdrew their funding contribution the Hub has been left totally reliant on donations and grants to keep their service going.
Mr McDonald said: “We’re living hand to mouth, to an extent.
“We have no income at all. We get nothing in cash terms from the council or any of the other organisations which we used to.
“Without that income coming in we’d really need to start to see how we can downgrade our services. However, we’re hopeful. We’ve got bids in for a couple of grants and fingers crossed we get that.
“I think on the whole, when we’ve gone for grants a lot of people have actually appreciated the work we’re doing because we give them anecdotal evidence as to what we’re doing apart from the stats that we’ve got. That helps us secure the loans and the grants.
“We don’t have a guaranteed future but in all, we’re doing what we can. If the situation turns out that we can’t go any longer, at least all the volunteers can proudly say they tried their best and we’ve done what we can for Buckie, which is unique because there’s no other place anywhere, as far as I know, in the north of Scotland, that does what this place has done.”
Among the recent donations to the Hub was a festive boost from kids at Cluny Primary School who, just before Christmas, handed over a sizeable collection of food and other items to be distributed to those in need. A charity – which has preferred to not be named – has handed the volunteer team a £3000 donation while Scotmid have donated 100 £5 vouchers.
Inchgower distillery staff recently gave the Hub £120 collected through a staff raffle.
The Hub currently has a dedicated volunteer team of around 30.
To find out more about the range of services offered by the Hub, plus opening times, visit the charity’s Facebook page. Alternatively, phone 01542 780624 or email admin@buckiehub.com