The years long battle to conquer the city's most notorious food desert

Last week, the recently established Castlemilk Housing and Human Rights Lived Experience Board delivered a presentation to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

The Braes Shopping Centre in Castlemilk 📸 Marissa MacWhirter

Last week, the recently established Castlemilk Housing and Human Rights Lived Experience Board delivered a presentation to the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Access to good quality, affordable food is a human right, they argued, set out in Article 11 of the UN Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. But Castlemilk is a food desert. Six years of tireless campaigning to get a supermarket to serve more than 14,000 residents have yet to bear fruit.

Located on the outskirts of the Southside, nestled at the base of Cathkin Braes, Castlemilk is one of the most deprived areas of Scotland. It has a lower life expectancy and higher proportion of people claiming out of work benefits than the rest of Glasgow. It is held together by the third sector with the four housing associations that make up The Board (Ardenglen, Craigdale, Cassiltoun and North View) going above and beyond their duties to help the community, offering things like nursery and meal clubs.