Why is a Glasgow community going to the United Nations to get a supermarket? Residents in Glasgow's Castlemilk have been fighting for years to get a supermarket in their area. What is going on?
The first time I stepped into an Iceland, I was blown away. It was like something out of an episode of The Simpsons. The endless rows of brightly coloured deep freezers brimming with every kind of dinner imaginable. The cartoonish bargain signs in all their yellow and red glory.
I get really excited in supermarkets. Distracted, impulsive, a little forgetful. Overstimulated. I nearly left with a trolley full of fifty types of ice lollies when it occurred to me that the mini fridge in my shared flat only had a tiny little ice box. And it was full already.
Iceland is a great supermarket option, if you have a big freezer and a big family at home. It’s the sort of place popularised in the 1980s when women entered the workforce in droves, convenience was king, microwaves became more accessible and American-style consumerism flooded the collective consciousness. But a frozen food shop should, in no way shape or form, be the only supermarket option in a community of more than 14,000 people – yet that is the reality in a suburb on the outskirts of Scotland’s largest city.
The right to good quality, affordable food is set out in Article 11 of the United Nations Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It’s why earlier this week, the Castlemilk Housing and Human Rights Lived Experience Board took their fight for a supermarket other than Iceland to the UN in Geneva. Castlemilk is a food desert and one of the most deprived areas in Scotland. Six years of tireless campaigning by the community has gone nowhere.
The Board was set up by four housing associations from the........
© Herald Scotland
