A NEW study has revealed that Scots, including those in East Ayrshire, are going days without eating due to food insecurity.

An in-depth report by The Menu for Change group – which brings together campaigners from the Poverty Alliance, the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, Oxfam Scotland and Nourish – is the first research of its kind to examine the root causes and affects of the issue.

The association has urged the Scottish Parliament to introduced a ‘right to food’ into Scots Law.

The study was carried out between December 2017 and April 2019 between three different local authorities in Scotland: Dundee, Fife and East Ayrshire.

Three-quarters of those who took part in the research suffered from some form of mental ill-health, with cash problems for food resulting in it being “not uncommon” for people to feel suicidal.

The report, published on Tuesday October 2 last week, also revealed that some adults would go up to three days without eating so they could feed their children and afford to pay rent, all of which was a “strikingly common experience”.

Interviewees were recruited via food aid providers and advice services, but 40 individuals were chosen for an interview who has recent experience of acute food insecurity.

22 people then took part in a second interview four to six weeks later and a further ten for a third time a year later.

Blair, from East Ayrshire, said: “I was my dad’s carer. Constantly, 24/7.

“Then when I lost my dad, I just went into depression and everything just fell in.”

Menu for Change are now calling on the UK government to ban zero-hour contracts as a result, with irregular wages a major part of the findings.

The group also recommends that the national living wage of £8.21 should be increased to the real living wage of £9.

John Dickie, Menu for Change, said: “The deeply personal stories captured in this report are as heart-breaking as they are avoidable and bring into sharp focus how we must do so much more to protect people from the income crises which fuel food insecurity and hunger.”