Travis frontman Fran Healy has said a campaign he is backing in support of UK food banks is helping people from his own “background”, having grown up in a poor area of Glasgow.
The Scottish rock band, comprised of Healy, Dougie Payne, Andy Dunlop and Neil Primrose, have been touring the UK throughout December while encouraging audience members to donate to food donation platform Bankuet for its Christmas Eat The Beat appeal.
“I’m from Possilpark, I was not born with a silver spoon in my mouth,” Healy, 51, told the PA news agency.
“So I’m from that, that’s my background,” he said in reference to the people who use food banks.
“We’ve been going on stage every night and persuading our audience by saying, like… ‘If you’re thinking of buying a T-shirt, don’t. Give money to the food banks instead.”
“It (Bankuet) is a brilliant food distribution platform,” he added.
The Trussell Trust said its food banks provided 262,479 food parcels to people in Scotland between April 2023 and March 2024.
During this period, parcels were distributed from 144 locations across Scotland and 1,699 locations (including Scotland) across the UK, as part of the charity’s network.
Speaking about the amount of food banks in the UK, Healy said: “I would say it’s a real damning indictment on the situation that we find ourselves in.
“We’re one of the most generous, most charitable countries in the world, and we’re given this idea that everyone’s suffering and everyone’s scrambling around…
“People have money, loads of people have loads of money, and they’re just keeping it all to themselves.”
He added: “We can put a little bit in and help best we can, and that’s what this country is famous for.”
Through the campaign, Healy said he discovered that food banks are “not just” about providing food.
“It’s to see someone coming in at the edge of their ‘I can’t live any more. I can’t take it any more’,” he said.
“And to leave with a bag of food, and not only that, just this belief that they’re not alone, that someone does care for them and that life’s worth living, even when there’s not an awful lot to live for. And that’s about community.”
Travis have been performing across the UK for their Raze The Bar tour and will take to the stage at Glasgow’s OVO Hydro on Saturday before embarking on their North American tour in January.
Fans at their gigs have been receiving Eat The Beat donation badges at merch stands when they make a donation via the Bankuet website.
Healy said concert-goers have “been very generous” and thanked them for buying tickets to their gigs.
Bankuet said it has raised over £4.5 million through fundraising campaigns to help keep UK food banks stocked.
