Yahoo News Castle Douglas Leanne Cunningham shares her story in Galloway People
Last week we left Castle Douglas Stepping Stones Community Larder and Food Bank project manager Leanne Cunningham at a crossroads in her life.
In 2015, at the age of 33 as a single mum with three children, Dylan, 14, Dean, aged eight and four-year-old Freya, she had been employed at the town’s Semichem for eight years.
An eye for detail and merchandising, together with her people skills, had enabled her to work her way up to become deputy manager but, in her own words, was at a point in life where she’d become “a wee bit fed up” and was looking to spread her wings.
Eight years previously, the family had come down from her home town of Saltcoats in Ayrshire where Leanne grew up, and leaving grandparents Tom and Anne Cunningham, who adopted her when she was three, was a big wrench.
By 2012 Leanne and the kids were in a new home and happily settled in Castle Douglas but, having left school only with a handful of standard grades, her desire to get higher qualifications became too difficult to resist.
She was surprised to learn “how much of a geek” she was when she went to Dumfries and Galloway College in Dumfries to study Nat 5 English, biology, psychology, numeracy and sociology.
However, hard work soon brought dividends.
“I was so attentive – a lot of the younger ones had dropped out of school but I was there taking it really seriously,” Leanne recalls with a smile.
“I loved the projects and loved researching and it was a really fun time in my life – I met all these new people who I am still friends with.
“I even won the ‘Learner of the Year’ award, and I still have that wee trophy in the living room.
“Sociology really opened my eyes – I did not know what it meant but looking back it gave me a different view of things such as poverty, drug abuse and single parent homes, which I did my project on.
“There’s a perception that single parent families are just young lassies who get pregnant and get a council flat but in actual fact they are such a wide range of people.
“And we are far too quick to judge drug addicts when we don’t know all the aspects of how and why they got into that position.”
Leanne speaks with force and passion on the subject and with good reason – as a single mum herself she knows the difficulties and challenges faced by people bringing up children on their own.
“I was a prime example,” she tells me openly.
“I was married, had jobs – it was a typical societal set up. But when a marriage breaks down and dissolves, you are on your own. People viewed me as a single mum and I was.
“But I had no support and through sheer determination and hard work I got a good job, then while bringing the kids up went back to college to better my life and the kids’ lives. But you have to have that determination.
“I have always been determined – at the age of 12 I was selling meat hampers in Saltcoats!
“I made myself do that – other members of my family were wholly reliant on the benefits system and I was determined that was not where I wanted to be.”
Leanne’s dedication and work ethic paid off, she tells me, as excellence in her studies brought its reward.
“The college fast-tracked me into the HNC in social care course, which I did in 2016-17,” she says.
“I loved my assignments, was never late and I passed – but it was hard work, coming home from college and picking the wean up from nursery and making sure the boys were okay.
“On top of that I had a 60-day placement in Castle Douglas with Support in Mind Scotland on King Street, which was helping people struggling with mental illness.
“I loved it – mental health is another subject I was quite sketchy on and it changed my outlook completely.
“They asked me to stay on as a casual sessional worker and at this time I applied to do social work at the University of Glasgow’s Dumfries campus.
“I got an interview, got accepted but I was enjoying my sessional work and really getting into the mental health side of things. So I deferred the uni course for a year to focus on Support in Mind and develop that.
“There were two workers there and I got on well with them.”
Giving full commitment to everything she does, it seems, is something of a trademark in Leanne’s life, I suggest.
“Well, at Support in Mind I had so many visions and ideas for the place,” she says.
“One issue for me was that there was no signage on the outside of the building. It was like the people were meant to be hidden away – they have mental health conditions and should be hidden.
“But when talking to the people they were really open about their conditions.
“I suggested there should be a sign actively advocating for mental health and that was agreed – not one person refused.
“For me that was huge – the service users felt they were accepted.
“There’s still that stigma attached to mental health, that somehow people can be dangerous.
“In fact, our service users were coming to be part of daily support groups where they would do crafts, knitting and mindfulness – we had a lunch group as well.
“Also, because the building was really small we started looking for a new place and finally got the former Galloway News building, which is where we moved to.
“I’d got a full-time contract in 2017 and after that lost all intention to go to university.
“I was the one who masterminded our move to the bigger premises and when we opened we had a massive open day with the Galloway News and Border TV in attendance.
“That was in October 2018 and former Dundee United footballer Andy McLaren, from the Kris Boyd Charity, was there.
“Kris had a younger brother who took his own life and set the charity up after the tragedy.”
It’s clear that the welfare of others – her grandparents, her children and those in need of support – has always been high on Leanne’s agenda.
But 30 months after Support in Mind moved – it’s now called Change Mental Health – Leanne herself, it turns out, was the one needing help after she fell victim to the ravages of coronavirus.
“When the Covid pandemic came in 2020 we were all working from home,” she recalls, the memory obviously still a painful one. I got Covid in 2021 and took very unwell and was off sick and extremely ill.
“Because I felt I could no longer support other people when I felt so unwell myself, I left Support in Mind in March, 2022. Shortly after that I got a job as a youth worker with Dumfries and Galloway Council, but I realised I still was just not physically well.
“I set up Youth Beatz then said to myself ‘I can’t do this’ – physically my condition was actually getting worse.
“I was trying to work out why I felt so bad. After I left I popped in and out of a couple of jobs to keep me going physically which led me in 2023 to get an interview with Castle Douglas Development Forum for the Stepping Stones position, which is where I am now. Looking back, on a personal level 2022 was the hardest year I have had, trying to work out what was happening to my body. I took on the job of project manager at Stepping Stones in March 2023 with the proviso that I would aim to make the model financially sustainable and look at other means of assisting the food bank.
“My team leader Keith Herron researched the community pantry model and went to Ayr to look at a specific model, and from that devised a model for Stepping Stones Community Larder and Food Bank in Castle Douglas.
“And with a lot of hard work we managed to open on July 31, 2023.”
It was a happy occasion for Leanne and her dedicated team of volunteers, she tells me, when the St Andrew’s Street base was opened by 97-year-old Jeanie Moore, one of the town’s oldest residents.
“It was a lovely day and we got more than 30 new memberships,” she says.
“We had a visit from the public health team and Sure Start Scotland who gave us very positive feedback. And our mission remains the same – to make sure that no child in Castle Douglas has to go to bed hungry.
“We wanted to promote the community larder aspect where members pay a small amount for food – it’s all about encouraging people to be more self-sufficient and independent, and for us it was just about growing that model.
“We have 302 members at the moment and we are approaching our first anniversary on the 31st of July. There’s a strong team of 17 volunteers and two sessional volunteers also.”
Leanne considers the community larder’s role in bringing people together as a vital part of the service, thereby helping to reduce isolation.
And she’s proud – rightly – that it has become a go-to place for many folk, the majority of whom live on their own.
“We have a lot of older people who would never use a food bank but enjoy coming into the larder to have a wee blether,” she says, citing its five main aims of creating access to affordable food, reducing food waste, promoting healthier living, providing volunteer opportunities and encouraging social interactions.
“Young mums come in too with their kids to have a cuppa and a chat and do their shopping.
“It’s very much a social thing – almost like the food aspect takes second place.
“It definitely has a positive impact.”
Working with other public agencies has been a key feature of Stepping Stones’ success, Leanne reckons.
“We’ve got links with the Scottish public health improvement team who give us advice on potential clients and volunteers,” she explains.
“Their members of staff volunteer regularly and they are really keen on the project. We have close links too with Lemon Aid, the fuel poverty advice service, and Home Energy Scotland. If people are struggling we can refer them to these agencies – the project is growing and it’s become a massive collaboration,” Leanne adds.
