Food bank's 'hard night' as more than 450 meals distributed

The queue outside the GPO for the MSOE food drive on Friday. Picture: Muslim Sisters of Eire

A food bank has said that Friday evening was "on of the hardest nights" that they have faced, with more than 450 meals being distributed out.

The Muslim Sisters of Eire, a homeless charity based in Dublin, run a soup kitchen with hot meals every Friday evening outside the GPO.

Queues of people can regularly be seen waiting to receive food from the charity, but on Friday things became "agitated."

Speaking on social media, the group explained: "Tonight, was extremely difficult, there were so many people who were so agitated, fighting with each other. It was difficult to keep control of the queue and everybody was extremely agitated.

Over the years, we’ve had a lot of hard nights, but tonight, was one of the hardest. 

"We were forced to shut down the table to try and take control of the situation. We even contemplated shutting down the soup run altogether for the safety of our team and for everybody else."

The post explained that the table was "weighed down" with the amount of food and donations that they had received.

"We had 410 meals and received an additional 50 meals, with 460 meals this evening. All of the meals were distributed.

We distributed tents, sleeping bags, hats, socks and hygiene packs.

"Once again, there were children, old people, people with zimmer frames lining up in the queue. Inflation and homelessness and people needing support is at an all time high and it’s hitting everybody."

Latest figures from the Department of Housing show that 12,259 people were in emergency accommodation at the end of April. The figure is a new record for the State.

The figures include 1,733 families and 3,594 children. Across the country, there were 8,665 adults in emergency accommodation, of which two-thirds (5,816) were single.

In March, just before the eviction ban was lifted, there were 11,988 people in homeless accommodation.