Soup run says it may have to close after inspectors issue it with letter of compliance 

Denise Carroll, organiser of the Homeless Street Cafe, photographed on Grafon St in Dublin last year. Picture: Moya Nolan

The founder of a longstanding weekly soup run for the homeless has said the voluntary operation may have to cease after environmental health inspectors issued a list of requirements if they are to stay open.

The Homeless Street Cafe has held a soup run every Tuesday for five years on Dublin's Grafton St but now faces having to close up after a recent inspection led to a letter of compliance being issued, with co-founder Denise Carroll saying meeting those requirements may not be feasible.

The food run sprang to national attention in 2019 when its Facebook page featured a photograph of a young boy eating his food off a box on the street, with the image later mentioned in the Dáil. Now its founder, Denise Carroll, has said it may need to stop because inspectors appear to be treating it as if it were a charity or food business.

P.2 pic.twitter.com/UvHppO8Ltr

— Homeless Street Cafe (@homeless_cafe) July 18, 2021

In a series of tweets, the voluntary organisation said "without prior contact and on foot of no complaints, the HSE's Environmental Health department met us before we could [get] started feeding our long queue the other Tuesday. They asked me a number of questions about how we operate. They referred to us, continuously as a food business or as a charity, of which we are neither."

The food run sprang to national attention in 2019 when its Facebook page featured a photograph of a young boy eating his food off a box on the street.

The volunteers subsequently received a letter of compliance and indicating that full enforcement action would take place.

According to the tweets: "We are not averse to recommendations and welcome any support we can get. However imposing costs on us to meet regulations for the professional food industry is too hard."

She said this would include handwashing facilities to serve cakes on the side of the street, or asking a pensioner who occasionally makes sandwiches for the voluntary operation to attend and pay for a specialised food safety training course.

Ms Carroll, who co-founded the soup run with her mother and who is herself a nurse, said she had been told by the inspector that there had not been a fresh issue raised with the operation, nor did she think it was because of the pandemic.

"Since the pandemic started we always pride ourselves on best standards and whatnot, but especially since Covid started, we have a minimal team, we have PPE, I'm a nurse myself, I get all that. We have hand sanitiser, and we also give masks, we are wearing gloves and masks, so I really don't think it's related to that.

"What they are saying is they have given me a list of things I have to meet and they will re-inspect me."

Formal enforcement action

She said any failure to meet all the requirements would result in formal enforcement action.

"It looks like this is the way it's going," she said. "The things they have set out makes it impossible to meet."

She said the operation had "a big old roster" of people who help out, with as many as 45 people making cakes and sandwiches and hot meals at any one time, which are then offered to people on a Tuesday night.

Ms Carroll said at its busiest the Homeless Street Cafe has given food to 300 people in an evening, and regularly provides food to about 150 people each week. She said there were many other food runs in other locations and at other times in the city, who would also be the focus of the environmental health team.

"We want to open the conversation of 'is this really where we all want to be going?'" she said. "What are we prioritising here?

"I know people don't want to see us on Grafton St, a queue of homeless people, but you can't deny it is going on, the real need. We have really hungry people." 

Ms Carroll said any curtailment of soup runs would only place additional pressure on other services and added: "I am not going out looking for business, there is a queue out there when I arrive."

The HSE have been contacted for comment and Dublin City Council said it was not aware of any formal concerns being raised with the HSE on this issue.

"Food safety is a matter for the HSE Inspectorate," a local authority spokesperson said. 

"There are several other organisations currently giving out food on the streets of Dublin City, and all DCC-funded organisations running the various accommodation facilities (hostels etc) provide food on site."