A team of caring young people has been praised for its meals service during lockdown.
G20 Youth Festival is a group of 14 to 18 years olds in the Maryhill and Ruchill area.
During the Covid-19 crisis, the young people have been delivering meals to vulnerable groups.
Lord Provost Cllr Philip Braat joined the young team on a recent delivery run.
He said the volunteers were a credit to the city.
He said: “I had the pleasure of helping the G20 Youth Festival last week.
"I have seen first-hand the remarkable work they are doing, delivering food parcels and other necessities to the vulnerable within the community of Maryhill.
“It was incredible to experience the positive impact they are making in their community, but most uplifting of all was to learn that the idea to help their community came from the young people themselves.
'Amazing'
“Supported by councillors Ledford and Scally, the G20 lead officer, Emily Cutts, and many other amazing individuals, the G20 Youth Festival team is yet another fantastic community group, among many others throughout our city, that is a shining a beacon of hope in these difficult times.
“These young people, their supporters and all the volunteers in Glasgow are shining examples of all that make our city great, namely compassion and humanity towards our fellow citizens.
The G20 project has grown out of The Children's Wood charity and evolved through that group working with young people outdoors on the Children's Wood and Meadow in North Kelvinside.
Community workers have co-ordinated diversionary activities for young people such as climbing, hip hop, forest school and graffiti.
Group co-ordinator Emily said the meals service was making a real difference to the community and the young people.
“The young people are delivering the food, and we have a professional chef cooking the food.
“We actually had the idea just as lockdown was coming on. We asked how could we help the community?
"And it was the young people themselves who came up with the idea.
“We have now completed four weeks of this and the young people have come to every single session.
'Deliveries'
“They have been taking the bags and handing them out to the doors on deliveries, and also handing them out to people who are passing.
“They have been amazing.”
The team delivers meals over three days, Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday, and provides bags of ‘essential’ items on two other days.
The group is currently running a crowdfunder raising money for a new kitchen that will give the team more capacity to produce meals over the lockdown and in the future when it plans to continue helping the community.
Emily Cutts said: “We can cook but it took 10 hours to cook the meal the other day - because the cooker is so small.
“A local funeral directors has pledged £225 and another donor has very generously given £500.”
Emily said the meals on wheels service was giving the young people confidence.
“I think they are getting a sense of hope and pride out of this.
“They feel good about themselves because they are actually helping their community.
'Positive'
“And people are starting to see them in a more positive way.
“They are getting high-fives and praise where usually they’d be getting ‘what are you doing hanging around here, kind of thing?
“We feel that is a really, really powerful thing for them.
“Helping people helps yourself. It’s been nice to see."
* To help the work of the young people visit details of the crowd funder here.
