Living costs leads to 'surge' in people using food banks

Br Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre said there were now people attending for food assistance from a broader cross-section of society because they are 'struggling to make ends meet'. Picture: Julien Behal Photography

The cost of living crisis is pushing more people towards food banks and soup runs, amid stories of elderly people going to bed early to cut their fuel bills and people turning up for food assistance unannounced because they do not have enough phone credit to make an appointment.

The Feed Cork Food Bank said it has had 108 new registrations to its service since the start of the year, including 68 in February alone — a figure that does not include the food assistance it provides to children attending some Deis schools in Cork City.

Brother Kevin Crowley of the Capuchin Day Centre in central Dublin said there were now people attending for food assistance from a broader cross-section of society because they are "struggling to make ends meet", while the Muslim Sisters of Éire said they were seeing a "surge" in people coming to their Friday night soup run and for food hampers during the week.

Charities have warned the rising cost of living has increased the risk of food poverty, and Br Kevin said this was certainly the case at the Capuchin centre on Bow St.

"People are living in fear and in the unknown of what is going to happen with the rising costs of food," he said. "Especially the older people, they are very, very frightened.

Some people would say to me that we are trying to save the heating by going to bed early in the evening time. They are living in fear, and some of them say they feel they are isolated."

The centre only reopened to in-person visitors last week, but its food parcel service has continued and has seen steady take-up throughout the pandemic and now amid rising inflation.

Lorraine O'Connor, chairwoman and founder of Muslim Sisters of Éire, said: "There is a new pandemic, and it is Covid poverty."

At last Friday's soup run in Dublin, 236 meals were handed out, some way short of peak levels during the pandemic, when it was one of the few soup runs that carried on its service.

Ms O'Connor said the soup run used to have three categories of clients — those living in hotels, single people in hostels, and rough sleepers.

"Now we have everybody, even people who have homes are coming down," she said. 

You have a surge, you have people who are genuinely struggling now."

Describing the "ripple effect of the pandemic", she said more people were seeking advocacy on their behalf when it came to speaking with utility providers amid spiralling bills.

The Feed Cork Food Bank in Cork City offers three-day food parcels on Wednesday and Thursday mornings — and has also seen an increase in demand.

Last year, it provided 37,400 food parcels, usually by appointment, but volunteer Emma Byrd said it had distributed 449 food parcels in February, up from 379 in January. Over those two months, there have been 108 new registrations.

"We would have a lot of clients who may not have an appointment when they come to the door, and we would never turn anyone away," Ms Byrd said.

To just turn up a food bank must be awful for them. Some may not even have credit in their phone to make an appointment or make that call."

And she said: "People are sacrificing the essentials like food just to keep a roof over their head."