Town supports food parcels
DUNDALK and surrounding areas has shown its big heart with a huge response to the appeal by the team at St Patrick’s Soup Kitchen for donations for their Christmas food parcels.
‘ There’s been a great response from businesses, schools, sports clubs and ordinary people,’ says Rose Bailey, who overseas the mammoth task of getting 300 food hampers ready for distribution to needy families in time for Christmas.
‘We will have around 300 hampers, the same as last year, for delivery,’ she says.
Demand for food parcels remains high, with food poverty causing people to queue at the back of the church every Friday morning to get a food parcel to help them put food on the table.
As the effects of the recession and the housing crisis continued to bite, it was decided three years ago to extend the soup kitchen service and to give food packages to those struggling to put food on the table.
‘It’s very sad to see that people have to do that,’ says Rose. ‘ We have all ages coming looking for assistance, young and old, male and female. We get a lot of pensioners too - it’s very sad.’
She points out that poverty often spans generations with mothers and daughters joining the queue to get food for their families.
Thanks to the generosity of those who responded to the appeal for donations for the hampers which this year are being delivered, 300 households will be able to enjoy the prospect of having food in the cupboard this Christmas.
‘We had a wonderful response to our appeal for donations and also for volunteers to help with making up the hampers.’
‘We have a group from the St John of God hub in Jocelyn Street who come up every week and help which is very much appreciated.’
The Soup Kitchen will be open as usual over the Christmas period, providing a hot snack every evening during the week, on Sunday afternoons, and also on Christmas Day.