Huge increase in people turning to food banks as cost-of-living crisis deepens

Feed Cork volunteer Jessica Oller: Feed Cork opens on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, but volunteers are working Monday to Friday handling food donations and preparing it for when clients come in.

A food bank in Cork city has registered almost as many new clients in the first six months of the year as it did for all of last year as the cost-of-living crisis deepens.

Feed Cork, which distributes food to families in need, is registering new clients every week, with 443 coming forward so far this year. For all of last year, it registered 480 new clients.

“It’s gone through the roof,” Emma Byrd, a volunteer with the charity, told the Irish Examiner. “It’s frightening. Definitely, the numbers are increasing in a big way.” 

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Food banks have been identified as a common feature in Britain over the last decade, with a report in The Times of London this week highlighting the UK has more food banks than McDonald’s restaurants, and increasing numbers of people in Ireland are now beginning to rely on them as an essential service.

Pastor Hamp Sirmans (centre), who is director of Feed Cork, with volunteers Natalee and Gavin Monaghan. Picture: Jim Coughlan

With households dealing with energy bills that are hundreds of euro more than last year, petrol and diesel through the roof and rents continuing to rise, Ms Byrd said that many who come through their doors have exhausted their finances meeting those costs and cannot afford the weekly shop.

“It’s not just people on social welfare,” she said. “We’re seeing a lot more families on low incomes not receiving social welfare. And food is their final priority by the time they have paid for everything else.” 

Feed Cork opens on Wednesday and Thursday mornings, but volunteers are working Monday to Friday handling food donations and preparing it for when clients come in. When they arrive, food is laid out in a similar manner as to how it would be in a supermarket.

We try to make people feel as welcome as possible and try to make it a normal shopping activity — as if they were going to do their groceries, so they’d feel they were coming into a shop rather than a food bank

"It’s a huge step for someone to actually make that call to come to a food bank,” Ms Byrd said. 

There is also a cafe on site, where people can have a coffee, cake, or sandwich

School scheme

The team also operates a programme called After School Fuel. It links with 13 Deis schools in Cork City to provide hot meals, prepared by Brooks Food Catering, to families on Fridays.

Other organisations offering support have highlighted the huge strain being put on families in recent month as inflation begins to bite.

FoodCloud operates in a number of countries and said that the number of tonnes of surplus food it is redistributing in Ireland this year is over double the amount it was doing in 2019.

Demand for food

It regularly surveys the community organisations and charities it provides support to and, according to its most recent survey in May, three in four say they’re experiencing an increase in demand for food. One in four said they weren’t meeting the demand for food.

“Almost all organisations agree this is predominantly down to the ongoing cost-of-living crisis, with some saying that they are continuing to support people due to the impact of the pandemic,” FoodCloud said.

No end in sight

Ms Byrd agreed that more and more people were relying on food banks and the situation looked set to continue.

Two of the volunteers at Feed Cork.

“That need is definitely increasing,” she added. “We rely on donations from the public, so we’re grateful to get those resources to keep providing this service every week.”