As well as being a wonderful restaurateur, running two fine Dublin-based establishments, Cake Café and Slice, The Menu’s weekly colleague Michelle Darmody has always operated above and beyond the base requirements of the industry.

The key figure in a charity which is feeding almost 2,000 people a week has issued an impassioned plea to government to divert some of the €22m 1916 commemoration funding to help the hungry and homeless.

A major review of one of the country’s oldest charities, Cork Penny Dinners, has found no evidence of financial irregularities, the Irish Examiner has learned.

One of the country’s oldest soup kitchen charities has dismissed criticism and appointed new trustees as part of a major restructuring.

A voluntary soup kitchen which dates from the Famine is now serving about 900 free meals a week — almost five times more than it was before the recession hit.