Penny Dinners 'want to make sure that everyone has somewhere to turn in a crisis'

Caitriona Twomey of Cork Penny Dinners.

Lights shine down on the windows of Cork’s Penny Dinners where cheery red posters thank the people of Cork for their support.

Inside, industrious volunteers sort through thousands of euros worth of food and new toy donations, dividing the goods into food parcels or Christmas hampers to be delivered to people who are struggling throughout Cork and its surrounding counties.

Volunteers man the centre from 6am, cooking hundreds of meals, delivering them and sorting out donations late into the night.

Seven nights a week, a team of volunteers known as the Night Riders bring hot meals and food parcels out to people sleeping rough or in need of support, checking doorways and dark alleys until they’ve located all their regulars and sometimes saving people's lives in the process.

“None of this would be possible without the generosity of the people of Cork,” Caitrona Twomey, volunteer co-ordinator with Penny Dinners said.

Much of this would also be impossible without Ms Twomey, who works hours that would exhaust an ant colony, making countless personal sacrifices herself to meet the needs of others.

She’s on the ground sorting out donations, planning ahead, fielding more than 1,000 emails a day, taking phone calls late into the night and constantly growing and evolving the charity in response to need.

As the co-ordinator of a Dublin homeless charity who called that night said, Cork has its very own Christmas angel in Ms Twomey.

“I was lucky, if I ever hit difficult times I could turn to my dad for help but not everyone has that. We want to make sure that everyone has somewhere to turn in a crisis,” she said.

Giant turkeys arrive into the bustling premises on Little Hanover Street and are carried through by volunteers to the freezers, waiting to be cooked on site or delivered to needy families.

A group arrives from Bantry in west Cork, laden with bags of specially knitted clothes and blankets, cash and brand new children’s presents.

Caitriona Twomey of Cork Penny Dinners with knight riders Ryan McEvoy, College Road. and Keith McInerney, Hanover Street, on their way to give out food parcels to people on the streets in Cork city. Picture: David Keane

Maddison, age 12, brought in cash donations she collected for the charity while her mum unloaded giant bags of high-quality donations from their car.

“We do this every year, it’s a Christmas tradition. Penny Dinners do amazing work. It’s great to be able to support them,” Catherine Wharton said before they returned to Bantry.

Then two gardaí, Ken O'Brien and Tony Kelliher arrive, their van laden with donated food from Dunnes Stores to feed into some of the 2,000 hampers which are packed and delivered every week to needy families and individuals by Penny Dinners. They bring them to centres and shelters across the city, schools and churches. 

“We’re non-judgemental here and we don’t need to know people’s names or circumstances. We just try to make sure all families are reached,” Ms Twomey said.

“There’s a lot of desperation out there. There were three suicides that we know about in the city yesterday and seven last week. It’s been a tough year for people. Services have been scaled back and many people are being pushed over the edge."

Life on the streets is tough. Both males and females can suffer multiple rapes every night. Assaults are also common and the difficult environment can lead to rapidly worsening mental ill-health which becomes increasingly hard to heal as time wears on, Ms Twomey said. 

Tents have caught fire with vulnerable people inside and the Night Riders have seen people they know die on the streets.

The night the Irish Examiner accompanied them, the Night Riders called an ambulance for a woman who was lying badly injured in a doorway. 

Tommy Lyons, a dedicated Night Rider volunteer said: “We’ve saved a couple of livesbut one night we saw a man we knew die on the street. That was hard.

“We've grown bonds with the people out here. When we meet people we ask how they are, not many people ask them that. 

“Throughout Covid, a lot of them felt isolated and lost. Everything was closed, town was deserted apart from a few homeless people.

“But we went out searching for them and did not leave any stone unturned until we found them."

When we return to the Little Hanover St centre, a man pops his head in the door and says “thanks very much for all the love boys and girls. You're legends. Have a Happy Christmas." 

Although the much anticipated Christmas Day lunch has been cancelled due to Covid, Penny Dinners will still be there. They plan to decorate little Hanover Street, putting up Christmas trees and feeding people take-away Christmas dinners with help from the four Star River Lee Hotel.