CROOKS from Clydebank have been working hard to grow fruit and vegetables for impoverished families in the town as part of their community service.

People serving community payback orders have been doing hard labour at Dalmuir Allotments to grow green beans, potatoes, onions, leeks, turnips and kale for West Dunbartonshire Community Foodshare.

An organisation that supports people experiencing financial crisis, the charity typically hands out more than 100 bags of food a week to those who are struggling to feed themselves across the region.

Raymond Mclean, 31, of Whitecrook, told the Post he was put on a community payback order for a drug-related offence and said through his time on the allotment he had discovered new talents.

He said: “I’d never done it before but I thought it was good I learnt a couple of new skills. I thought it was pretty easy work and I enjoyed it. It’s even better that the stuff is going to the foodshare.

“I’d quite like to keep going and get a wee plot but I think it’s hard to get one.” Sharon Purvis, 27, of Drumry, said she had grown her own vegetables in the past and had also had first-hand experience of using the foodshare.

She said: “I’ve been in the foodshare before – it’s good to keep your belly full, it’s hard times.” Ms Purvis, who was placed on a community payback order due to a knife crime, said she plans to 'stay out of crime’ in the future.

Paul, 45, of Faifley, added: “I think it’s quite hard work, it’s physical, but it’s quite rewarding to think that you are giving something back to the community with the food going to the foodbank. It makes you feel that you are contributing.” The community payback organisers have two plots and eight raised beds at the Agamemnon Street allotments to grow a wide range of vegetables – and are hoping to expand and double their capacity.

Andy Clive, allotment supervisor for Community Payback, trains the teams on basic planting, pricking off seedlings, and transplanting them into the prepared beds.

He said: “The boys are quite interested – nine out of 10 of them are really interested in it. It can lead to them getting an SVQ2 at Levengrove Park in Dumbarton. We had four people doing it last year and it gives them start and helps with their employment prospects.” He said one man who had been through the allotment community payback programme had started his own business offering grass cutting and landscaping.

Bill Freeland, Community Payback co-ordinator, said the people sent to work in the allotment for community payback generally responded well.

He said: “It you give them hard work they tend to take to it. When they made the dementia-friendly allotment in Dumbarton they moved in more than 100 tonnes of material – without using mechanical diggers or lifters. It’s tough work and they really enjoyed it.” Stewart Dunsmore, secretary of the foodshare board, praised the latest delivery of fruit and veg.

He said: “It’s absolutely fantastic – they gave us our first delivery last week of potatoes and green beans and most of them flew off the shelves. This is just great – it’s not just food, it’s quality food, it’s healthy food.

“We want folk to eat but we want them to eat healthily as well and what is better than freshly grown, freshly picked veg. We’re delighted.”