Facility aims to provide food for struggling families

A soup kitchen has been started in Tralee to provide food for people struggling to feed themselves and their families.

The facility, which opens from 12 noon to 2pm on Saturdays, has no connection with facilities operating in Galway and Athlone.

However, organisations working with the poor say a trend may be under way and soup kitchens could yet be provided in other towns.

Colette Price and Dawn Roberts started the service six weeks ago in a hall in Ashe St provided by the St John’s Parish Committee.

Ms Price said the service had been slow to take off, but they were sure a demand existed. “We’ve been talking to various organisations, including St Vincent de Paul, social workers and the HSE who have told us there’s a need for it,” she said.

“We’ve been operating under the radar until now but feel more people will start to come once they get to know about it. We want to make people aware it’s there.”

The women run the facility with volunteers from the Tralee Lions Club which is funding the project. The Lion’s Club is holding a fundraising quiz tonight in the town’s Meadowlands Hotel at 8pm, and some of the funds raised will go to the soup kitchen.